Senate to America: ‘Bush lied’; America: ‘Duh!’

In probably the most obvious Congressional finding issued in a long time, the US Senate Intelligence Committee has issued a report declaring, as a Reuters story put it, that “George W. Bush and his top policymakers misstated Saddam Hussein's links to terrorism and ignored doubts among intelligence agencies about Iraq's arms programs as they made a case for war.”

Really?!

The report looked at the pronouncements of Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld in particular and found that their statements were, to be kind, not supported by the evidence or they were exaggerated. Still, the sales campaign worked and they were able to get their invasion of Iraq backed.

Their propaganda campaign was so successful that even though the vast majority of Americans now oppose the Bush-Cheney war, sizeable numbers still incorrectly believe the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld line that Saddam Hussein was involved in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, even though back in 2003 Bush himself was forced to admit there was no connection.

The fact that the Senate found, as the American people already know, that the Bush-Cheney regime lied in the lead-up to the Iraq War isn’t really news. What I found interesting was that five Republicans on the committee were prepared to stand behind Bush (two voted in favour of the report). Christopher Bond of Missouri and three other Republicans denounced the report in an attached dissent.

Given what we all now know, it amazes me that any Republicans would stand behind Bush-Cheney and their lies and deception. I don’t know if those five Senators are too stubborn to admit a mistake, too proud to admit they were duped or too partisan to admit reality. But in any case, these are five people the US Senate would be better off without.