Finally, Empirical Evidence

A recent study by the Center for Public Integrity concluded that President Bush and his top advisors made 935 false statements between 2001 and 2003 regarding Iraq. Obviously, this should not be news to anyone, as it has become apparent that any statement made by the administration in the run up to the invasion of Iraq was completely false due to “bad intelligence.” If memory serves me correctly, the intelligence community was right about Iraq; Sadaam did not have weapons of mass destruction, nor was his regime a threat to the US or US interests in the area. The trouble is that the correct information was intentionally suppressed and ignored by the Bush Administration.

With this new found empirical evidence, is there any recourse for the American public? To be blunt, no, we cannot do a damn thing about it. It would have been nice if we were more informed about Iraq in the run up to the 2004 election and it would have been even better if this new information had come to light in 2003, but these notions are a moot point now. Yes, I do believe that if the American public knew what we know now, Bush would not be in the White House, plain and simple. Is there any legal recourse? Without getting into the legal “mumbo jumbo,” the answer in this case is a blunt no. Misleading the American public is not “a high crime or misdemeanor.” Now if one of these individuals slipped up under oath in Congressional testimony, that would constitute perjury, which is punishable under the law.

The trouble is that it would prove impossible to follow the trail of lies back to Bush. Those close to Bush are firmly aware that he is not the most intelligent person to have ever resided in the White House, so they have taken extra measures to ensure that those below Bush take the rap for any misdoing. That is, he has advisors and staff cronies for every single aspect of the job. The punishment for George W. Bush in this case is history. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Bush is concerned that his legacy as president will parallel that of Lyndon B. Johnson (Vietnam). I believe that history will be kind to Bush in terms of his handling of 9/11, but the true legacy of his administration will be strewn with incompetence and failure. Ask yourself this: What has he really accomplished besides spending money like a kid who stole his dad’s credit card?