As we head into the 2004 election it is going to become more and more clear that President Bush will run on what he considers to be a record of success in providing for the country's security as we deal with the ever-present threat of terrorism. A centerpiece of his foreign policy has been the war in Iraq, and the more the public finds out about the decision-making process the more disturbing all of this becomes.
Throughout 2002 and early 2003, the administration kept leading the American people to believe that there was a link between the tyrannical regime of Saddam Hussein, a secular dictator, and the ideologically driven Islamic terrorists of al Qaeda. References to al Qaeda were made in the 2003 State of the Union speech, which now are highly dubious. Despite the actual truth, opinion polls consistently showed up through the summer of 2003 that a strong majority of Americans believed Hussein was linked to al Qaeda.
Another listed reason, the primary one, was that Hussein had been building up massive stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons. Secretary of State Colin Powell had addressed the United Nations discussing various sorts of equipment and locations where different kinds of weapons were being held. President Bush used information in his State of the Union address in 2003 to present information that Iraq had allegedly sought out uranium from countries in Africa. Combined with his non-existent links to worldwide terrorism, this all certainly would make a strong case for going to war to take out a present threat to our country.
Since the victory in Baghdad, though, we are discovering more and more just how hollow these original justifications were. Al Qaeda may now in fact be in Iraq, but all evidence points to them having come in to fill a vacuum of power; they were never in league with Hussein. The weapons sites alluded to by Powell and Bush turned out to not exist. The search for weapons of mass destruction has dragged on for months and months. Up to now no chemical weapons have been found.
Former Chief Weapons Inspector David Kay has candidly told the press that after a long search he does not believe the weapons actually existed. Between bombing campaigns of weapons infrastructure throughout the Clinton years and the internal corruption and waste of the Hussein government, no meaningful weapons program really existed except on paper.
The Soviet Union used to maintain what were called Potemkin villages, fake towns made to look prosperous and hold up their failed system as some measure of material success. It has become apparent that Hussein, whether he knew the dirty secret or was himself fooled, could never reveal to the world that he had no weapons. To show his true weakness could have sparked revolution or a coup. His Potemkin weapons programs held up his reputation, his base of power. One thing he didn't actually do was pose a direct threat to us.
We might then say it was not Bush's fault, that intelligence sources were genuinely fooled by Hussein's ruse of being guilty. However, upon closer inspection it's even more obvious that Bush and his entire team deserve a lot of blame. Sources in the CIA had questioned various weapons claims and even debunked the supposed connection to uranium in Africa, but the administration still used those claims in their propaganda machine.
Recent news from former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill would indicate the administration was making plans to take out Hussein before the Sept. 11 attacks even occurred. The administration clearly had a goal of making war and were willing to selectively twist the available intelligence to fit the purpose. Only now, with said intelligence being debunked by the honest facts of the daily newspapers, is it becoming clear just how much the Bush administration has humiliated our country, doing damage that will take years to repair.
It is now painfully obvious that the present struggle in Iraq was started under false pretenses. Whether by intentional dishonesty or an incompetence born of willful ignorance, the Bush administration allowed these premises to dominate our national discourse and only led us down a troublesome road of voluntary wars in the Middle East and an international community that despises the United States. Make no mistake, the Bush administration will spin this record into a reason they ought to be re-elected this year-to manage our national security. We can only hope that in 2004 the people don't fall for the untruths fed them in 2003.
