a tiddlywinks contest: just as effective

Digby on his blog Hullabaloo writes the following concerning criticism of the Iraq war:

I hate the Democrats who ... spout lie after lie: that the president knew in advance there were no WMD in Iraq; that he lied to Congress to gain its support for military action; that he pushed for the democratization of Iraq only after the failure to find WMD; that he was a unilateralist and that the coalition was a fraud; that he shunned diplomacy in favor of war.

These lies, contradicted by reports, commissions, speeches, and public records, are too preposterous to mock, but too pervasive to rebut, especially when ignored by abetting media.

I simply point out that digby is misrepresenting the criticisms of many Americans--—Democrats, Independents, and Republicans as well--—who lament the disastrous mistake that took us into the expensive and counter-productive quagmire known as the War in Iraq. Let us examine in some detail the so-called "lies" that digby is attributing to Bush's critics.

that the president knew in advance there were no WMD in Iraq. This is not what critics are claiming. Bush undoubtedly believed there were WMD in Iraq. The criticism is that intelligence was poorly interpreted and "cherry picked" by neo-conservatives in the Administration. The President was misinformed by his own political appointees, appointees who served him and the nation poorly. Bush failed to question critically the interpretation of intelligence that was presented to him.

that he lied to Congress to gain its support for military action. Bush made statements of fact that turned out to be erroneous. So did Colin Powell in his address to the United Nations. They did not lie (if a lie is defined as a purposeful misrepresentation of facts). The charge is that they believed the erroneous "intelligence" that was fed to them and passed it on as fact.

that he pushed for the democratization of Iraq only after the failure to find WMD. No responsible critic is claiming that the goal of democratizing Iraq was "invented" after the WMD rationale proved to be fallacious. The criticism is that after the original rationale for the preemptive invasion on Iraq proved to be vacuous (the self-defense argument), the Administration's P.R. machine changed its tune and said the invasion was about bringing Democracy to Iraq. Had that been the reason stated before the war effort began, Americans would never have supported the invasion, and we wouldn't be in this mess.

that he was a unilateralist and that the coalition was a fraud. Who has said the coalition was "a fraud"? That's not the criticism. I think John Stewart on The Daily Show said it best. When Bush named a minor northern European country high on a list of coalition members in response to a criticism voiced by John Kerry, Stewart asked, with a tone of incredulity in his voice, "Poland???" Other than Britain, the participation of other nations in the Coalition has been much more symbolic than real.

that he shunned diplomacy in favor of war. Well, digby, why don't we just rephrase this. Bush shunned weapons inspections in favor of war. We didn't need to fight a war to rid Saddam of WMDs. Therefore any other approach would have resulted in a WMD-free Iraq: a regime of weapons inspection, diplomatic negotiations, even a tiddlywinks contest between American and Iraqi schoolchildren.

You call the arguments of war critics as being "too preposterous to mock, but too pervasive to rebut." If you would only state the arguments as they are actually made by most critics, they are not at all preposterous. They are factual. And how, or why, would you want to rebut the true cost of this war? Thousands of American soldiers killed and tens of thousands of American casualties. Tens or hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who have lost their lives. Hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars down the drain. And ... zero WMDs found.

Iraq War Bush criticism digby Hullabaloo WMD intelligence cherry-picked Iraq+War