Credibility?

Can it get any clearer, America?

The New York Times reports today that key "intelligence" trumpeted by the Bush Administration as a rationale for the invasion of Iraq was, in fact, fabricated by a single captive to avoid torture - and the White House knew this in February 2002! The Times writes:

[Government] officials said the captive, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, provided his most specific and elaborate accounts about ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda only after he was secretly handed over to Egypt by the United States in January 2002, in a process known as rendition.

The new disclosure provides the first public evidence that bad intelligence on Iraq may have resulted partly from the administration's heavy reliance on third countries to carry out interrogations of Qaeda members and others detained as part of American counterterrorism efforts...

Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, made public last month unclassified passages from the [Defense Intelligence Agency's] February 2002 document, which said it was probable that Mr. Libi "was intentionally misleading the debriefers."

The document showed that the Defense Intelligence Agency had identified Mr. Libi as a probable fabricator months before the Bush administration began to use his statements as the foundation for its claims about ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda involving illicit weapons.

It would be one thing if there actually had been a connection between al Qaeda and Iraq, and the U.S. had faced genuine peril three years ago. It would be another thing if the ultimately faulty intelligence delivered to the Bushies had been unanimously verified by all agencies involved, and the President had unknowingly committed to a mistaken course of action, which he was now "working hard" to correct and refine.

But how much more proof do Administration apologists need that the inexcusable mess we've made of Iraq is neither of those things?!?!

From the beginning of Mr. Bush's 2000 campaign and before, he and his minions have had a nation-building dream centered on Iraq. 9/11 provided the excuse needed to turn that dream into an actionable reality. And so, with allegedly coerced information it knew to be potentially unreliable, the Administration shamelessly played on America's fear and the still-open wound of our 3000 dead to abandon the logical mission in Afghanistan, and launch an illegitimate act of aggression against a nation that was no longer a threat to anyone, least of all the U.S..

They knew, and yet they went ahead anyway, to the tune of 2,200 more Americans dead, tens of thousands maimed, countless Iraqi's slaughtered, hundreds of billions spent, a nation (and possibly a region) thrown into de facto religious civil war. They did it by crafting a magnificent piece of theater. A work of fiction. A masterful sales job.

A deliberate lie.

The Times article also notes:

Mr. Libi was returned to American custody in February 2003, when he was transferred to the American detention center in Guantanamo Bay... He withdrew his claims about ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda in January 2004, and his current location is not known.

I don't remember hearing much about that little revelation during the last Presidential election campaign either. So much for liberal media bias.

There are many who say that there is little point in rehashing just how we got entangled in Iraq, that it serves no purpose because... well, because we're there, and like it or not our united goal must now be "complete victory". In a very real way, we do need serious, intelligent leaders to look forward, and find a solution to the chaos we've created down Baghdad way.

But the members of this Administration are not those leaders. And the value of examining the run-up to "Shock and Awe" is in what it says about the character, vision, and trustworthiness of the individuals in power. In what it demonstrates about the ability of this Administration to evaluate the complexities of the information at its disposal, and then lead this nation in the right direction.

And, obviously, what it says is that we simply cannot afford three more years with this group at the helm - no matter how accommodating Mr. Lieberman believes we ought to be. "Undermining the President's credibility" indeed!

This Administration has no credibility. The first intelligent step toward resolving our nightmare in Iraq should be the removal of the dishonest architects at the top. To do anything less will only leave us more globally reviled, less domestically secure, and collectively responsible for whatever terrible consequences lie ahead with these same "leaders" calling the shots.