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I AM A LIAR! IS PRESIDENT BUSH?

I was born on June 24th. At least I thought I was born on June 24th. My Birth Certificate said I was born on June 24th. So did my Drivers License. All my life I told people I was born on June 24th, filled out applications, legal documents, and had even sworn under oath. Wrong! Under today's standards I was a Liar. Even worse a perjurer who should face the legal consequences, and I didn't even know it.

Liar, Liar Pants on Fire

I had known I was adopted and sometime in my mid 40s I found a second Birth Certificate that said I was born under a different name on June 17th. It was not June 24th but June 17th I had lied about my birthday, or had I? This is the situation facing President Bush and weapons of mass destruction. Did he lie, or was he just wrong?

"The great uncertainty of all data in war is a peculiar difficulty, because all action must, to a certain extent, be planned in a mere twilight, which in addition not infrequently - like the effect of a fog or moonshine - gives to things exaggerated dimensions and unnatural appearance. Carl von Clausewitz

American Intelligence said Saddam had WMD. British, Russian, U.N., and every spook of note believed it existed. This was the virtual consensus; Iraq had chemical and perhaps biological weapons. Nay-Sayers were ignored. The Egyptian President warned The United States if we invaded Iraq, Hussein would surely use chemical weapons. They were wrong. The Dictator was running a bluff.

Saddam Hussein stood like a Colossus before his people. Bigger than life, able to reward or kill at his whim, the Baathist President looked as solid the Rock of Gibraltar. In reality he was Jell-O quivering in fear. Fear of his Shiite majority, fear of the Iranians, and mostly fear of the Americans. Out of this fear came a desperate plan. A Bluff worthy of Poker legend Amarillo Slim.

"Oh, what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practice to deceive!"
Sir Walter Scott

You can't say Husein's solution wasn't audacious. Although he had lost his chemical weapons during the Gulf War, he pretended he still had them. He bragged about them, jerked the Inspectors chain by denying them access to empty buildings, and faked convoys. He did just about everything he could do to convince the World he was armed to the teeth with Chemical Weapons. It worked. The world's intelligence community was convinced until the Bush Administration called the bluff by invading Iraq.

Given the same amount of intelligence, timidity will do a thousand times more damage than audacity. Carl von Clausewitz

President Bush placed WMD at the forefront of his argument for the war. We invaded and exposed the ruse. Now the question is, was the President lying or was he just wrong?

The administrations biggest error was using weapons of mass destruction as its major reason for the invasion. It was scary, but there were far better arguments. For example we invaded Panama to arrest its President on Drug Charges; Saddam Hussein was guilty of far greater crimes than Manuel Noriega. United Nations resolutions would have given legal authority for Bush to invade Iraq to "arrest" its leaders, and charge them with of crimes against humanity.

"No plan survives contact with the enemy"
von Moltke the elder

For two decades a group of "think-tank" analysts, Neo-Conservatives, nicknamed "The Vulcans", had worked on a plan to bring Democracy to the Middle East. On paper it looked like it might work. Former Democrats, the Neo-Cons" sold it as President George Walker Bush's legacy. Now that war and the President's legacy hang in the balance. Despite a terrible execution, it may still succeed. We won't know for decades.

Learn more about this author, James E. Fish.
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