Wednesday, June 25, 2008
The deceptions were aplenty
From the RoundTable blog
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Ted Fuller
Fuller, of Blacksburg, is a professor of sociology at Virginia Tech.
In his article titled "Bush lied?" (June 11 commentary), Fred Hiatt argues that President Bush did not lie to the American public in the run- up to the war in Iraq. However, there is ample evidence that President Bush deceived the American people and the U.S. Congress in at least four important respects in order to lead the country into war with Iraq. Let's see how we were deceived and what lessons can be learned.
One deception was to exaggerate the strength of the evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. The president did not level with the public about the debates in the intelligence community about, for example, the credibility of various sources or the differing interpretations of various pieces of the puzzle. In short, Bush cherry-picked the intelligence to build the case he wanted.
A second deception was tricking people into thinking there was a connection between Iraq and the attacks of Sept. 11. Even though his intelligence experts told Bush as early as September 2001 that there was no link, he continued to talk about Iraq and Sept. 11 in the same breath, creating the impression that there was a link. At one point, he had tricked two-thirds of the American public into thinking that Saddam Hussein was personally involved with the attacks of 9/11.
A third deception was leading people to believe that there was a link between Saddam and al-Qaida. Years later, we learned from the 9/11 Commission Report that there was "no evidence" of a "collaborative operational relationship" between Saddam's Iraq and al-Qaida.
A fourth deception was telling the public and Congress that war would be the last resort. It is now clear that Bush was determined -- long before March 2003 -- to go to war with Iraq.
There are serious lessons to be learned, lessons that go beyond the current president. Many people seem to operate on the implicit assumption that the president is infallible. The thinking is that "if the president says X, X must be true. If the president says we must go to war, then we must go to war." However, neither this president nor any past or future president is infallible.
The American people were not well served by the Congress in the lead-up to the war with Iraq. Members of Congress failed to ask tough questions. If they had asked tough questions, they could have uncovered the uncertainties within the intelligence community. They could have clarified that, as the president knew, Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.
We need to develop a political culture in which we, the people, demand that our representatives and senators have a healthy skepticism and don't just take the president's word for anything, especially something as important as war. We need to ask them about this when they are campaigning to represent us and we need to remind them frequently of their duty to get as much independent verification as possible that the president is telling the truth, and the whole truth.
Right now, there are war clouds on the horizon. It appears likely that Bush wants to take us to war against Iran. Congress must not leave this decision up to Bush. They must be skeptical, ask tough questions and make sure whether military action is truly necessary.
This is a responsibility not just for the current Congress, but for all future Congresses. In order to prevent future deceptions, we, the voters, must make sure that Congress takes its responsibility seriously and we must encourage those who are skeptical. Patriotism doesn't mean blindly following the president. Patriotism means making sure that the country is on the right track.
