<The reasons Bush gave for invading Iraq and specifically, over throwing its regime, were many>
Yes. Exactly.
Many, many reasons. The real reasons, the exagerated reasons, the totally imaginary reasons. Everything they could think of. The shotgun approach.
Then, they noticed, that of all their motley collection of real and imaginary reasons, the one that had the biggest response, the one that scared Americans the most, was WMDs. So they made that the focus. Day after day, all through 2002, hammering away, the same simple scary message: Iraq threatens the US with WMD.
And, of course, they needed evidence. So they invented it. When the regular Intelligence Community didn't come up with sufficiently scary "evidence", they quickly created a new parallel system, to produce the necessary "evidence". The Cabal, as they called themselves.
When any group begins with the assumption that they are right, 100% right, the above process is often the result. There was probably a not-small amount of self-deception, mixed in with the straight-forward lying. And most of the people who supported the Administration's claims, in the press and abroad, were simply being loyal Team Players, trusting the U.S. President.
We can add this, to the long list of things this Administration has done, to unilaterally destroy the coalitions and alliances needed to win the War On Terror. |
