Bush’s house of smoke and mirrors

A few days ago, a report authored by chief U.S. weapons inspector Charles Duelfer asserted that Saddam Hussein’s Iraq did not possess any weapons of mass destruction when the Bush administration attacked Iraq in 2003.

The report also stated that Saddam’s weapons-development programs were less advanced in 2003 than when the Clinton administration authorized air strikes against Iraq in the late 1990s. This report clearly undercuts the Bush administration’s rationale for attacking Iraq – but sadly, it seems nobody in the administration will admit this.

Before the war against Iraq, the Bush administration regularly warned us of impending doom if the nonexistent threat in Iraq was not neutralized. They convinced many that Iraq did possess weapons of mass destruction – and now we know they lied.

The evidence they presented was shaky at best, given what we know now. Time after time, they used their public relations skills and stump speeches to convince people of something they could not totally verify. It is a disgrace to go into a war based on evidence that may be false, and it is a disgrace to mislead the public about anything, especially an issue as grave as war.

Of course, Saddam Hussein was, and still is, a terrible man. If the United Nations had removed sanctions against Iraq, he probably would have begun developing more complex weapons programs. The United Nations was never going to do that – and the best way to handle Iraq was to keep pressuring Iraq with weapons inspectors and sanctions.

After Sept. 11, Iraq was not the biggest threat in the world, since the United Nations had neutralized it. Saudi Arabia may have been a bigger threat; after all, many of the Sept. 11 hijackers were Saudis. North Korea is a bigger threat – they have a nuclear bomb and a crazy dictator. Iraq had nothing to do with Sept. 11 and had no weapons of mass destruction aimed at anybody.

Now, thanks to the Bush administration’s war, look how far we have come. There is violence in Iraq every day. There are more terrorists in Iraq now than there were under Saddam Hussein. Osama Bin Laden, the real mastermind behind Sept. 11, has not been caught. Iraq is not even close to being a democracy. Right now they have a leader appointed by President Bush, and the country will have many difficulties conducting an election in the near future. It’s even possible that if Iraqis elect an anti-American leader, the United States may overthrow another Iraqi leader.

This war is also costing billions and billions of taxpayer dollars. This is money that could be going to things such as paying off the national debt or making health care cheaper. If so-called conservatives don’t like to throw money at projects that are failing, why is this “conservative” administration throwing money at a failing project in Iraq?

President Bush has been allowed to “flip-flop” all he wants about why we went to war. One day he can mention that Saddam was a bad man, the next day he can mention that Saddam was abusing the oil for food program, and the day after that he can tell everyone about how successful a democracy in Iraq will stabilize the region.

And people call John Kerry a flip-flopper?

The Bush administration always planned for a best-case scenario, which has not and will not materialize. While administration officials have finally faced the fact that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, they will not admit they were wrong in attacking Iraq. The facts will clearly tell you that the Bush administration was wrong when they attacked Iraq – and it continues to employ the wrong strategy to stabilize Iraq.

It’s easy to see why so many citizens of other nations loathe Bush’s foreign policy. More Americans should do the same.