AND THE LIES JUST KEEP ON COMING

They speak with forked tongues.

The New York Times blisters Rumsfeld and the Bush administration for its lies about Iraq in the leadup to the invasion. But for my money, more than the threat of WMD, the crucial issue that brought Americans around to supporting the war was:

In Atlanta, Mr. Rumsfeld denied ever saying flatly that there were dangerous weapons in Iraq. Actually, he did, many times, even as late as March 30, 2003. On Sept. 27, 2002, Mr. Rumsfeld said there was "bulletproof" evidence of ties between Al Qaeda and Iraq, including that Iraq had trained Qaeda agents in chemical and biological warfare, and he repeated that myth in response to Mr. McGovern.

Americans are notorious for being reluctant to enter into foreign wars, even IF they involve dictators who are slaughtering their own people. It was not until we were attacked at Pearl Harbor that we entered a war that already engaged most of Europe and much of Asia. We were slow to do anything about the genocide in Serbia-Croatia and have done virtually nothing about Sudan. What sold so many on the Iraq war was that if Saddam had WMD AND ties to Al Qaeda, then the specter of him giving deadly weapons to terrorists to use against Americans was too frightening for them to ignore. It also lent credence to the Bushies' subtle suggestions that Saddam himself might have been involved with 9/11, and that raised anger against his regime to a fever pitch.

Saddam's greatest crimes against "his own people" occurred many years before and they didn't seem to bother Rumsfeld, Cheney, Bush 41 or the Republican hero Ronald Reagan enough to stir them to action then, or to stop them from supplying him with some of those very weapons they later used as a pretext for the 2003 invasion.

The NYT piece goes on to castigate Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, for failing to fulfill his promise, and his duty, to investigate the lies of Bush and his top aides. Last fall, you'll recall, Dems shut down the work of the Senate by walking out in protest, and Roberts promised to complete Phase 2 of the investigation, and to submit interim reports of the panel's work to the Senate. He has not done so.

The next time Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld or Rice is caught in an outright lie, I hope the Democratic leadership will lead another walkout and express a little of the outrage the American people are feeling about this continued stonewalling.

Tags: Donald Rumsfeld, lies leading to the Iraq war, Sen. Pat Roberts