Bush lied about the reason for the war in Iraq. The Downing Street Minutes may be the smoking gun, but there was plenty of evidence before. Some Republicans knew this, and didn't care- in fact, they're glad about this whole thing; everything's going their way. How do I know? More, below the fold.
If you remember any of my other diary entries, you'll know I'm cursed with being the only liberal in my entire family. I still try to sway my relatives every once in a while, though, and the latest discussion with my brother-in-law centered around the Downing Street/Rycroft minutes and how we got into the whole war in Iraq. After realizing I would never convince him to see things my way, I confessed during a phone conversation that I gave up, I lost. His reply- "No, you were entirely right. Bush had every intention of going to war with Iraq; you just needed to stop focusing on that stupid single paper and look at the facts. I even tried to steer you in the right direction, but you wouldn't listen." He then admitted that "every Republican who voted for Bush in 2000 knew he was going to go into Iraq. The Democrats were just too stupid to see it."
Okay, well, sometimes I think my brother-in-law exagerates just a little bit... At any rate, he claims he knew the second that Bush teamed up with Powell, that we were heading into Iraq- it was the only thing Bush and Powell had in common. Hindsight is 20/20- Powell was a misfit; or a means to an end for this administration. The Iraq link is probably the best explaination.
The thing we liberals get wrong, however, is we assume that everyone, including the Republicans, will care about being lied to and manipulated. After my brother-in-law's revelation, I've suddenly realized- it's not like that. The Republicans who saw it coming know that Bush didn't lie to them- any presidential lies were told to the Democrats, to get them to go into Iraq with the rest of the country. Resolution 1441 was drawn up carefully, anticipating Saddam's responses; even I saw this- I knew we were going to war no matter what. R. 1441 would request too much, and ensure he didn't have enough time to comply- even Saddam saw this at the end, as he scrambled to meet the resolution, but it was too late.
The smart Republicans knew we were headed into Iraq, and, you know what? They didn't care- they wanted it that way. It's one of the reasons why they voted for Bush. Why? I'm not sure; I guess they're wrapped up in the whole Neo-con plan. They want Bush to follow this plan, to make America a superpower again. They do care about America, and believe that what Bush is doing is in America's best interests. The Democrats, too stupid to see this, are pushing back, and trying to block the best path to America's global supremacy. This, in the minds of the Republicans, does make them traitors- and that's how they can make those accusations with a straight face.
We can dig up all the dirt we want on Bush and his administration, we can keep on revealing his lies. To the Republicans, it doesn't matter- the end justifies the means, and America's assured supremacy is worth the blood of all our soldiers, and worth the eminity of all the nations. It's worth the lies.
Bleak, isn't it? We may wake up the dittoheads, we may turn around the moderates, but to the far right, we are well and truly traitors, blocking the nation's global supremacy, and "too dumb" to even realize it.
Frankly, I don't give a crap about our supremacy, especially if it means destroying the rest of the world to get there, but if we're going to make any headway in convincing the far right of this administration's follies, the only hope lies in showing them that the neo-con plan is the wrong plan; it's not working, never will work, and is doomed to failure. We'll need to come up with our own path to global supremacy if we ever want to convince the far right to come around to our side.