Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz Sunday defended the invasion of Iraq as an example of how the United States had to be prepared to act on "murky intelligence" in its war on terrorism.
Wolfowitz was asked in several television interviews about widespread criticism that Washington's rationale for the war -- charges that Iraq had chemical and biological weapons and was collaborating with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda group -- appeared to have been built on shaky foundations.
No such weapons have been found and little concrete evidence has been presented of an al Qaeda link.
"The nature of terrorism is that intelligence about terrorism is murky," Wolfowitz, one of the architects of the Iraq war, said on the "Fox News Sunday" program.
Wolfie goes on Fox... That's courage!
Anyhow, as Wolfie must know, the issue is not that intelligence is "murky"—the issue is whether intelligence was distorted for political ends, which is exactly what happened. The 16 words kept floating to the top, even as the intelligence professionals tried to keep them out, exactly because Bush was determined to have his war, and sought to use any reason, no matter how flimsy.
Bush lies, soldiers die.