“I wish the intelligence had been different, I guess.” That, in a nutshell, is George W. Bush’s valedictory thought about invading Iraq, in interviews with Charlie Gibson on ABC this week.
“A lot of people put their reputations on the line and said the weapons of mass destruction is [sic] a reason to remove Saddam Hussein,” Bush added.
But the historical record shows that the “lot of people” consisted mainly of Dick Cheney and his henchman, relying on a swindling Ahmad Chalabi and torturing CIA intelligence into a false case against the Iraqi regime he was salivating to replace.
“We’ve really got to make the case” against Hussein, Bush told Secretary of State Colin Powell in January 2003, “and I want you to make it” at the UN.
A few days later, according to the Washington Post, Powell was “taken aback” by “a 48-page, single-spaced compilation of Hussein’s alleged weapons of mass destruction program, replete with drama, rhetorical devices and a kitchen sink full of allegations…