Stating the obvious

According to the Associated Press, a study conducted by two nonprofit journalism organizations – the Center for Public Integrity and the Fund for Independence in Journalism - found that President Bush and top administration officials made hundreds of false statements about Iraq in the two years following 9/11.They said the statements "were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses."

Well, no duh. I don’t think anyone in America, reading this article over their morning coffee, was “shocked or awed” by this announcement.

The AP article noted that White House spokesman Scott Stanzel did not comment on the merits of the study but reiterated the administration's position that the world community viewed Iraq's leader, Saddam Hussein, as a threat."The actions taken in 2003 were based on the collective judgment of intelligence agencies around the world," Stanzel said in the article.

We need to wake up people. This is not a war issue. It’s not about whether or not you support the troops. Frankly, it’s not even about whether or not you believe Bush is doing a good job. It’s about expecting honest, forthright answers from our elected officials, especially when people's lives are atstake. We expect our friends and loved ones to tell us the truth. We teach our children that “honesty is the best policy.” So why do we accept anything less from those who are supposed to lead this country?

The study included 935 false statements in the two-year period following the terrorist attacks. It found that in speeches, briefings, interviews and other venues, Bush and administration officials stated unequivocally on at least 532 occasions that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or was trying to produce or obtain them, or had links to al Qaeda, or both. Was this an outright lie? Were they mistaken? Were they given bad intelligence? Or did they know that this was the only way to convince the American people to send our fathers and sons, wives and mothers, into war?"

It is now beyond dispute that Iraq did not possess any weapons of mass destruction or have meaningful ties to al Qaeda," according to Charles Lewis and Mark Reading-Smith of the Fund for Independence in Journalism, writing an overview of the study. "In short, the Bush administration led the nation to war on the basis of erroneous information that it methodically propagated and that culminated in military action against Iraq on March 19, 2003."

Bush was not alone in the study – a number of his top officials were also called on the carpet, including Vice President Dick Cheney, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and White House press secretaries Ari Fleischer and Scott McClellan.

Bush led with 259 false statements, 231 about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 28 about Iraq's links to al Qaeda. The center said the study was based on a database created with public statements over the two years beginning on Sept. 11, 2001, and information from more than 25 government reports, books, articles, speeches and interviews.

"The cumulative effect of these false statements - amplified by thousands of news stories and broadcasts - was massive, with the media coverage creating an almost impenetrable din for several critical months in the run-up to war," the study concluded.

"Some journalists - indeed, even some entire news organizations - have since acknowledged that their coverage during those prewar months was far too deferential and uncritical. These mea culpas notwithstanding, much of the wall-to-wall media coverage provided additional, 'independent' validation of the Bush administration's false statements about Iraq," it said.

Now that’s something to think about.