A Catalog of Lies About Iraq’s “Weapons of Mass Destruction”

It was that Dubya told the world:

“Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised.”

Now Henry Waxman, congresscritter, has put a database of such deceptive statements on-line — with a handy interface that allows you to search by speaker (Dubya, Dick, Rice, Powell, or Rumsfeld), subject (nukes, chemical/biological weapons, urgent threat, and al Qaeda links), keyword, and date.

That should be mighty convenient for the blogger or letter-to-the-editor writer.

It’s important to remember, though, that there is nothing unusual about a government enlisting an army of lies to help it fight a war. That’s standard practice. This “I’m shocked that you’d lie to us!” pose that the Democrats are using in is either disingenuous or stupid, and implies that they think the norm is for war fever to be accompanied by studied decision-making and solemn truth-telling. It’s a cover-your-ass move — they’d like to make believe that they had no idea they were pulling a cart of manure when they helped pass the resolution authorizing Dubya to invade (a measure that, thanks to Democrats like Waxman, passed by wider margins than the one Dubya’s father got for Desert Storm Ⅰ).