I wonder if George Bush and Karl Rove will get away with their attempts to rewrite history, even while the bodies are still warm. Given the complicity -- by virtue, mostly, of laziness, I think -- of the press, it's entirely possible. The truth, as they say, is out there; but future journalists will have to expend a little energy to find it. It's not as if they're famous for doing so.
Among the many facts so easily revised, so ignored, is the Iraq WMD issue. In the past couple of days, we hear Bush regrets the failure of intelligence. And Rove says (in a statement Bush himself isn't so damn sure about) that if they'd known there were no WMD they'd not have invaded.
Bullshit. They knew it. There's no way they didn't.
Everyone who tries to justify the "failure" likes to say how many others believed there were WMD: Europeans, Bill Clinton, Congress. Well, yeah, for a while they did. But they didn't invade. And there were serious questions raised, and ignored. But most important of all: before Bush invaded Iraq, there were inspectors there. THERE WERE INSPECTORS THERE!! Finding nothing. Given the reservations, and the fact that THERE WERE INSPECTORS THERE FINDING NOTHING, there was no reason to invade -- assuming WMD was really the reason. It's simply a lie to say otherwise. Rantings notwithstanding, I'm not particularly quick to call people -- even George Bush -- liars. But in this it's impossible to think otherwise. Because -- stop me if you've heard this -- there were inspectors there, finding nothing. And then Bush pulled them out! How easy it seems to be to ignore that fact, to forget it entirely.
George Bush has a right to say whatever he wants, and to try as hard as he can to rewrite his own history. I hope to hell that he doesn't get away with it.
Thank God for the internet.
[Update: it's even worse than I thought!]
