The following is from a Reuters story currently topping the headlines on the Yahoo homepage... "Now there are some who would like to rewrite history; revisionist historians is what I like to call them," Bush said in a speech to New Jersey business leaders.
Referring to the ousted Iraqi president, Bush said, "Saddam Hussein... was a threat to America and the free world in '91, in '98, in 2003. He continually ignored the demands of the free world, so the United States and friends and allies acted."
The president did not mention Iraqi unconventional weapons in his remarks, although accusations Iraq had chemical and biological weapons were central to his prewar campaign to build support for an attack. No such weapons have yet been found.
I happen to be of the ilk who believes we were right to take powerful action against the Hussein regime. But from the start, I said President Bush was giving the wrong reason to the American public and the world. Saddam simply wasn't doing what he agreed to do at the end of the '91 war and that was MORE than enough reason to take him down. I couldn't believe that GWB could hang a war WE started on a reason that didn't exist. But what he said today makes it look very much like he did just that. Now, our president publicly chides his critics for "rewriting history" while in the same breath he rewrites his reason for going to war in the first place--a reason to which he has steadfastly stuck until today. Bad move! He is now--by his own definition--a "revisionist aggressor." One of three conditions exist. Either: 1) the intelligence was right and there ARE weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, in which case he should stick to his guns until they are found... 2) The weapons are NOT in Iraq and he knew it, in which case he should admit he lied to America and the world and take the beating he deserves... or 3) He really was proceeding under false intelligence, in which case Bush could simply not announce it--we the American people would be left with an insecurity this nation has never felt before. All faith in our government's ability to protect us--especially in matters of foriegn relations--would surely be lost beyond hope. If we can't trust our own messengers, how can we possibly stand behind any strategie drawn as a result of the messages? I have exercised what is (for me) an extraordinary patience in this matter. So much hinged on either Saddam using or the US finding those weapons that I believed, if there really weren't WMDs in Iraq, by now (dispicable as it seems) we would have simply planted some and then "found" them to save face in the eyes of the free world. The fact that we've gone this long WITHOUT finding them made me believe all the more that Bush was right--the weapons were there. Until today. Now my faith in an American I respected and trusted is seriously shaken. I believe that George W. Bush sealed his politcal fate today. If the story isn't capped off by tomorrow morning's newscasts (and that will be difficult due to the fact that such a sensational statement was made in a public speech,) many of the Bush faithful will be taking a much closer look at ALL of the politcal hats now coming into the ring. GOD BLESS AMERICA! ~~Bob Barnes | 
