Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

In other words: Despite the Republican Party's ongoing (and occasionally accusatory) lamentation that Americans don't take responsibility for their actions (choosing to "play the victim" instead), poor George did nothing wrong and is simply a victim of circumstance. We should pity the man for having been painted into a corner by the Arab League, which was eager to push the United States into a war.

If you believe that, I've got some ocean-front property in Arizona that you can have for a song, and a bridge in Brooklyn I'm willing to part with at a fire sale price.

In order to buy such nonsense, you have to completely disregard the Downing Street Memos, which detail efforts by the White House and the British government to goad Iraq into a war by launching a series of air strikes against the country that violated international law (see "The War Before The War," "British bombing raids were illegal, says Foreign Office," and "General admits to secret air war" ). The Downing Street documents have yet to be disavowed by either the U.S. or U.K. government.

One government does not attempt to incite another government to attack it without being fully committed to fielding troops to a war; it simply doesn't wash that Bush would bomb the tar out of Iraq for ten months and expect Hussein to step down without a fight.

And it was important that Bush be able to declare war, instead of continuing his covert air strikes -- raids that the so-called liberal media chose to overlook and failed to report every day for ten months -- until Hussein cried "Uncle!"

A full-blown war waged by America served the interests of neocons far more than the possibility of Hussein accepting exile. The invasion of Iraq, planned days after the 2000 inauguration (according to former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill) allowed the White House and Congressional Republicans to engage in one of their favorite practices: Inflating the deficit, then using the red ink to justify cuts in domestic spending for the poor and middle class.

Further, after causing economic havoc, the Oval Office was able to let slip the dogs of corporate welfare, funneling billions in the form of no-bid, Iraq-related rebuilding contracts to companies owned by major GOP campaign contributors. Those contributors then "recycled" some of that money back into the GOP's coffers, a unique form of money laundering that puts Tom DeLay's machinations to shame.

Trying to blame the Arab League simply doesn't wash; Bush had little to lose but everything to gain from a war. Of course, trivial things like facts and logic have never carried much weight when right-wingers are manufacturing conspiracies.