Balance

I've heard it argued that questioning possible manipulation of intelligence, and wanting answers, is somehow unpatriotic. The spin is: question how we got ourselves into this current military foray = not supporting the troops. Nonsense. Absolute nonsense.

Listening to such critics, well that's a little like asking the cheerleading squad to give an honest assessment of the team's progress. Sure cheerleaders "want" the team to win. But their motives for winning are not necessarily the same as those of teammates actually playing the game. (Don't get me started on what possibly might motivate such cheerleaders. Let's just say "accountability" may not be a familiar word.)

Here's an editorial from today's PBPost, an example of the Fourth Estate holding someone's feet to the fire:

In a Veterans Day speech — actually, a series of applause lines in search of a speech — President Bush claimed that "it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how" the Iraq War began. That line got some applause, but not from those who wonder how the man responsible for starting and conducting the Iraq War can accuse others of being irresponsible.

Panicked by polls indicating that he has lost Americans' trust, the president attacked critics who have said his administration manipulated intelligence. One of his quotes is a perfect example of how he continues to twist facts. He said critics "have argued that extremists have been strengthened by our actions in Iraq, claiming that our presence in that country has somehow caused or triggered the rage of radicals. I would remind them that we were not in Iraq" on 9/11.

But there is no doubt that the war in Iraq has been a recruiting tool for terrorists. Worse, because of the administration's mistakes in conducting the war — using too few troops to secure the country; disbanding the Iraqi army — Iraq has given terrorists an extraordinary opportunity to kill and wound Americans. The president is right that American troops were not in Iraq on Sept. 11. But neither was Iraq involved in the Sept. 11 attacks. That is why critics such as this newspaper supported the decision to invade Afghanistan but question the decision to invade Iraq. As for "rewriting history," Mr. Bush has rewritten the justification from weapons of mass destruction to the establishment of democracy.

The president also claimed that his critics are "fully aware that a bipartisan Senate investigation found no evidence of political pressure to change the intelligence community's judgments." As The Washington Post reports, the president was referring not to a Senate committee but to a panel President Bush himself appointed. That panel was led by former Sen. Chuck Robb, D-Va., and Judge Laurence Silberman, a Republican who noted, when releasing the report in March, "Our executive order did not direct us to deal with the use of intelligence by policymakers, and all of us were agreed that that was not part of our inquiry." In fact, the Senate committee that is supposed to investigate manipulated intelligence has let Republicans delay its work.

How the U.S. got into the war is important, but how the U.S. will get out is more pressing. The president, seeking more applause, declared, "We will never back down, we will never give in, we will never accept anything less than complete victory." That's hard to applaud when there is no workable definition of "complete victory." It's hard to applaud when Iraqis just have adopted such a flawed constitution. And it's hard to expect "complete victory" when only recently has the 5-mile road from Baghdad to the airport been secured. Americans would love to applaud the capture of Osama bin Laden or of Musab al-Zarqawi. But even those would not represent "complete victory."

The president says others were just as wrong about Iraq as he was. That's no defense, particularly with the question of intentional misinformation not settled. Americans, for all their doubts, would applaud President Bush if he found a way to conclude this unecessary war successfully. For now, they are right to hold their applause.