The legal and political stakes are of the highest order, but the investigation into the disclosure of a covert C.I.A. officer's identity is also just one skirmish in the continuing battle over the Bush administration's justification for the war in Iraq.
That fight has preoccupied the White House for more than three years, repeatedly threatening President Bush's credibility and political standing, and has now once again put the spotlight on Vice President Dick Cheney, who assumed a critical role in assembling and analyzing the evidence about Iraq's weapons programs.
People seem to forget sometimes that the outing of Valerie Plame was most likely a retaliation for her husband's poking holes in the Bush Administration's Iraq war justifications. The ones that were all wrong, by the way.
"There's a daisy chain that stems from the fact that no weapons of mass destruction have been found," said Richard N. Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations.
"Iraq was at core a war of choice, and extraordinarily expensive by every measure - human life, impact on our military, dollars, diplomatically," said Mr. Haass, a former senior State Department official under President Bush. "If this war was widely judged to have been necessary along the lines of Afghanistan after 9/11, I don't believe you would have this controversy. If the war had gone extremely well, you wouldn't have this controversy."
I'm sure Haass will just be dismissed by the right as a political hack, a whining liberal. But his words ring true to current events and the Iraq situation.
It was a choice, not a necessity. It was based on half-truths, probably many outright lies, a lot of pulling the wool over America's eyes, and self/special interest concerns on the part of the Bush Administration. Sold like a used car with a hidden list of major problems. Sold on a platform of bull.
Plamegate
Karl Rove
Republicans
Iraq
Bush
Politics
Dick Cheney
Bush Administration
Iraq War
Neoconservative
Contact your Congressmen.
Get your Senators involved.
Give them your opinion on the subject.
Support Rep. Lee's Resolution for Inquiry into the Downing Street Memo
Support Rep. Lee's Resolution Against Permanent U.S. Bases In Iraq.
News and facts on the Downing Street Memo.
BBA
Downing Street Memo
State Department Documents that back up the Downing Street Memo.
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