Defending the indefensible

I posted a variation of this at Dailykos.

The progressives are seizing on Bush's speech today about pre-war intelligence as if it's a magic bullet -- "The intelligence for WMD was manipulated by the White House, twisted to support the case against Saddam by Bush and the neocons! The Democrats in Congress didn't have access to the real intelligence -- that's why they voted to authorize the war! They were misled, the poor, pitiful fools."

That is an argument that cannot win because it's complete bullshit.

Let's be honest.

As an informed citizen, reading news reports and other readily available media, I knew the WMD issue was a smokescreen from the beginning. A sizeable portion of the U.S. citizenry saw through the transparent, obvious attempts to build a bogus case for the invasion of Iraq.

You can look at the polls from the period of time that the Bush Cult began its pro-war P.R. campaign, and you can read about the massive global protests by millions of people who didn't believe that Saddam was the 21st Century version of Hitler, conspiring with Al Qaeda to incinerate the U.S. with dirty bombs and infect the survivors with bubonic plague.

Some members of congress stood fearlessly, speaking truth to power--Byrd, Kennedy, Kucinich--and did their job to represent their constituents. The other Democrats plugged their ears.

So I do not buy the argument that most Dems decided to go to war because they were fed bogus evidence. They voted for war because they cowered at the strong-arm tactics of Bush and Company, because they were worried about being seen as "weak" and hurting their own careers, and because the imperial presidency tolerated no "traitors" and branded anyone not playing along as treasonous.

I'm all for running the prez and his cultists out of town dripping tar and feathers, but let's be honest with ourselves, shall we?

The Dems knew they were being fed horseshit, and they smiled, chewed politely, and said, "Thank you, sir, may I have some more?"

Better late than never, but I, for one, have a hard time accepting the "we didn't know" excuse. If it works as realpolitik to jettison the bastards, fine. But because Democrats who should have known better swallowed the pile of rotten dung, thousands of troops and a hundred thousand Iraqis are now rotting in the ground.

I can't forget that. I won't forget that.