In liberals' eyes, Bush's black hat permanent

In liberals' eyes, Bush's black hat permanent

On cue, liberals and Democrats across the country spontaneously arose yet again to declare the war in Iraq a miserable failure with grimmer prospects down the road. They got the memo.

The "Downing Street Memo" flap first surfaced in the Sunday Times of London on May 1, five days before parliamentary elections. It was based on a meeting among British government officials on July 23, 2002.

Though the American left saw the memo as the smoking gun ?- evidence that President Bush knew a year before the invasion that Saddam Hussein posed no threat, but was determined to oust him anyway ?- there was nothing particularly newsworthy in it. It got little coverage in the mainstream press.

According to the memo, "Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD (weapons of mass destruction). But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC (the U.S. National Security Council) had no patience with the U.N. route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record."

Earl Tilford, former resident of Decatur, who is a professor of history at Grove City College in Pennsylvania, author of three books on the Vietnam War, and former director of research at the U.S. Army's Strategic Studies Institute in Carlisle, Pa., has examined the memo.

"The phrase 'but the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy' does not mean that intelligence was being manufactured," writes Tilford. "In simple terms, the Bush administration was making its case for the forcible removal of Saddam." He continues: "It's very difficult to fix intelligence. If they were told to make it up, a lot of people would just resign. If you tell lies, you are going to get caught."

As has been well established, Bush and his predecessor, Bill Clinton, members of Congress and the intelligence community shared the same view of Saddam and weapons of mass destruction: He either had them or was working aggressively to acquire them.

Likewise, Tilford says, the phrase in the memo that military action would be justified "by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD" is not news. "The phrase was drawn almost verbatim from the National Security Strategy of the United States, which states the U.S. will take action against 'state sponsors of terrorism which attempt to gain or use weapons of mass destruction or their precursors.' "

What you're reading, seeing and hearing now about the memo is the work of half-a-dozen obsessed liberals marketing their take on the memo to the news media. In the two weeks after the memo was first published, it was mentioned fewer than 100 times, according to a search of newspapers, magazines and television news-program transcripts by the Wall Street Journal. After the targeting effort, the phrase has appeared 800 times.

The idea of targeting the media came from a professor of ancient history in Pennsylvania, Michael Clark, the Journal reports. His plan was to contact three media outlets a day, starting with the majors. After some success, the campaign spread to smaller chains and newspapers.

It worked. British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Wednesday he was "a bit astonished" at the second-life play in the United States. "What people forget about the memo," he told the Associated Press, "is that [it] occurred nine months before the conflict" and that after it was done, the allies went to the United Nations in an effort to avoid war.

By Tuesday, President Bush was at Fort Bragg, reminding the nation that Iraq "is a central front in the war on terrorism." and success is "vital to the future security of our country." The nation should prepare for periodic assaults on the home front. The left cannot let it go.

Since well before the start of his administration, Bush has fallen into that class of villains in liberals' eyes, which commonly includes police, conservatives and corporations. A rule applies: If there are two or more ways to interpret an act, word or deed, choose the most venal. Ergo, Bush lied. Bush deceived. Bush connived, conspired and corrupted. Bush evil.

Those are recurring themes in the liberal rant. Brace yourself. Every few months, for as long as we are in Iraq, you'll hear them. Again and again and again.

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