Debunking Anti-War Myths About Iraq

Peter Wehner, deputy assistant to the president and director of the White House's Office of Strategic Initiatives, has a featured article today on OpinionJournal.com which debunks many of the myths being promulgated by the anti-war left. He covers four key myths which the left uses to smear the President about Iraq:

• The President misled the American people prior to invading Iraq: Mr. Wehner goes into detail on how the NIE (National Intelligence Estimate) made a judgment in 2002, concerning Iraq stating that Saddam had ignored UN sanctions and was continuing pursuit of WMD capabilities. They also predicted that if left unchecked, he'd have a nuclear weapon within a decade. He also points out that several of the President's most harsh critics on the war were in favor of taking action against Saddam prior to the war.
• The Bush Administration pressured the intelligence community: Several Democrats, including Al Gore, have charged that the President's administration coerced those in the intelligence community to spin their analysis. Mr. Wehner cites the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence's bipartisan Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community's Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq, which came to the conclusion that no intelligence agencies or officials were coerced to spin any intelligence analysis.
• Saddam was not a threat since we found no WMD: Mr. Wehner cites the analysis given by weapons inspector David Kay upon his return from Iraq-

  I actually think this may be one of those cases where [Iraq under Saddam Hussein] was even more dangerous than we thought." His statement when issuing the ISG progress report said: "We have discovered dozens of WMD-related program activities" that were part of "deliberate concealment efforts" that should have been declared to the U.N. And, he concluded, "Saddam, at least as judged by those scientists and other insiders who worked in his military-industrial programs, had not given up his aspirations and intentions to continue to acquire weapons of mass destruction."

  He also cites the fact that Saddam was using the Oil for Food program to bring down UN sanctions which prohibited him from pursuit of WMD.
• The push for Democracy in Iraq is a post-war rationalization: Mr. Wehner cites a speech given by the President in 2003 prior to the war in which he stated-

  "A liberated Iraq can show the power of freedom to transform that vital region, by bringing hope and progress into the lives of millions. America's interests in security, and America's belief in liberty, both lead in the same direction: to a free and peaceful Iraq. . . . The world has a clear interest in the spread of democratic values, because stable and free nations do not breed the ideologies of murder. They encourage the peaceful pursuit of a better life. And there are hopeful signs of a desire for freedom in the Middle East. . . . A new regime in Iraq would serve as a dramatic and inspiring example of freedom for other nations in the region."

  Many of us probably remember that speech. I most certainly do.

We all know that the left has tried to spin the Iraq war into something that it simply is not. The claims from the Democrats that this is "Bush's Vietnam" and Murtha's call for immediate withdrawal have all essentially been part of an ongoing, long-term political objective: take back Congress and the White House. They have essentially politicized this war, undermining those soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen, whom have shed their blood to ensure the future safety of this nation, all for political gain. But the American people are smarter than that. The 2004 Presidential election was proof and the 2006 elections will be no different. If anything, their rhetoric has served to push society to an even more conservative stance.