For George W., the latest string of reports, comments and leaks is catastrophically bad news. They ensure that the Nov. 2 vote will be a referendum on Bush’s handling of Iraq.
The conclusive final report of the Iraq Survey Group puts the final nail in the coffin of the notion that Iraq somehow threatened the United States. Of course, the report is just the latest from the group, following preliminary reports, interviews and press accounts over the past year of the Survey Group’s work. But it’s a slam dunk. The Times editorial (called “The Verdict Is In”) says: “Sanctions worked. Weapons inspectors worked.” We now know, thanks to the report, that not only didn’t Iraq have WMD, but Saddam didn’t even have a plan to develop WMD—by 1991, they were all gone. Final total: zero weapons of mass destruction.
The Cheney-requested report on Zarqawi, which reportedly says that Iraq’s pre-war ties to Zarqawi were nonexistent, nails that coffin shut. Final answer: zero Iraq-Al Qaeda ties.
The off-the-record Paul Bremer remarks stating that the Bush administration didn’t have enough troops in Iraq to create order in the country in 2003 nails a third coffin shut: Bush and Cheney bungled the occupation. Final conclusion: zero planning.
And the continuing carnage in Iraq ensures that Americans won’t forget what is happening there. Kerry-Edwards have still shied away, though, from picking up on Paul O’Neill, Dick Clarke et al. to charge that Bush wanted to invade Iraq before 9/11. And they seem incapable of making the simple statement that Bush-Cheney deliberately distorted the intelligence to justify that end. I’m mystified as to why.
The question now is whether Kerry can carry out a sustained attack on Bush’s war as the “wrong war, wrong place, wrong time.” It would be a mistake, in my opinion, for Kerry to try to refocus the campaign on domestic issues. The vote in November will be a vote about the war. Kerry is getting a boost from the CIA, already alarmed at the half-cocked plan to reorganizing intelligence proposed by the 9/11 Commission—the CIA has joined the Kerry campaign, in effect, led by Mike (Anonymous) Scheuer and Paul Pillar of the National Intelligence Council. The CIA is providing a steady stream of anti-Bush reports, simply by stating the truth.
The White House, which has attacked Kerry for demeaning our allies, seized clumsily on the Survey Group’s report that some other countries actually engaged in commerce with Iraq. The Post account :
Administration officials spent yesterday trying to refocus the attention of reporters on the disclosures in the report that many U.S. allies, top foreign officials and major international figures secretly helped Hussein generate more than $11 billion in illegal income in violation of U.N. sanctions. The report contains a long list of foreign officials and companies involved in helping Iraq —while the names of Americans were blacked out because of privacy considerations.
So when Cheney, in the hawk vs. hawk debate with Edwards, said that Kerry-Edwards can’t succeed in enticing France, Germany, Russia et al. into helping salvage Iraq, we now know that is because Bush-Cheney will continue to insult and embarrass those very allies we need.
