In all the entries that I’ve criticized the President Bush and his Administration about the Iraq war I’ve resisted the temptation of many on the left to call him or his Administration flat-out liars, but the time has come. The folks over at Crooks and Liars have a video clip from The Daily Show on the recent New York Times War Memo news item that revealed Bush had every intention to launch the Iraq War on March 10th regardless of whether any WMDs were found. From the NYT article:
During a private two-hour meeting in the Oval Office on Jan. 31, 2003, he made clear to Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain that he was determined to invade Iraq without the second resolution, or even if international arms inspectors failed to find unconventional weapons, said a confidential memo about the meeting written by Mr. Blair’s top foreign policy adviser and reviewed by The New York Times.
“Our diplomatic strategy had to be arranged around the military planning,” David Manning, Mr. Blair’s chief foreign policy adviser at the time, wrote in the memo that summarized the discussion between Mr. Bush, Mr. Blair and six of their top aides.
“The start date for the military campaign was now penciled in for 10 March,” Mr. Manning wrote, paraphrasing the president. “This was when the bombing would begin.”
On top of that, Bush apparently discussed various ways they could provoke a confrontation if he felt it was necessary:
Without much elaboration, the memo also says the president raised three possible ways of provoking a confrontation. Since they were first reported last month, neither the White House nor the British government has discussed them.
“The U.S. was thinking of flying U2 reconnaissance aircraft with fighter cover over Iraq, painted in U.N. colours,” the memo says, attributing the idea to Mr. Bush. “If Saddam fired on them, he would be in breach.”
It also described the president as saying, “The U.S. might be able to bring out a defector who could give a public presentation about Saddam’s W.M.D,” referring to weapons of mass destruction.
A brief clause in the memo refers to a third possibility, mentioned by Mr. Bush, a proposal to assassinate Saddam Hussein. The memo does not indicate how Mr. Blair responded to the idea.
The Daily Show clip sums it all up pretty well. Bush sold us a load of bullshit and much of the country bought it.
Posted on 03/31/2006 at 02:54 PM 
Even better, there are still lots of people who still think Dear Leader is the shizzle.
Most Red-leaning folks would probably go Blue (or Purp) if the Demos would get off their dead arses, come up with a message and field candidates that had solutions (no matter how fanciful or crazy).
“B-b-but we’re not Bush” is neither a message nor a solution; if the Demos try that again for the mid-terms, then the Thousand Year Reich will continue on through ‘08, at least.