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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lurqer who wrote (37091)	2/6/2004 12:57:17 AM
From: lurqer	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 89467

It's hard to get more mainstream than USA Today. From the founder. It's report card time and we flunked Iraq Millions of parents shared satisfaction or disappointment as their schoolchildren brought home report cards recently. All of us should be deeply disturbed by the report card our government has received for its reason for going to war in Iraq. "We were almost all wrong," former chief U.S. weapons inspector David Kay said about President Bush's repeated claim that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction that posed an imminent threat to us. "Almost all wrong" means an "F" on any report card. This week, Bush said he would appoint a committee to take a year or so to figure out why we flunked Iraq and whom to blame. What Bush needs to understand: Nearly all of us think Iraq is better off without Saddam in power. But most are beginning to wonder whether it was worth the mounting price in lives and monumental dollars. And now many think the pre-war WMD scare was stupid or trumped up or both. None of our six school-age children ever has received an "F" on a report card. But if one ever did, this would be certain: • There would be no long investigation of what went wrong or who is to blame. • The child clearly would understand it was his or her fault and would apologize to teachers and parents. • Prized privileges would be removed until he or she got back on track. • If it happened again, it would be out to the woodshed. A president's report card may be a bit harder to fix than a child's. But the approach should be the same. First, accept blame. Second, apologize. Third, get back on track. If that doesn't work, it's out to the woodshed. In this case, Bush has one he could retreat to in Crawford, Texas. usatoday.com lurqer