Holding them accountable 

Holding them accountable

During his Wednesday press conference, President Bush was asked if he could offer some definitive evidence of the alleged link between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda that the Bush administration offered up last fall and winter to justify the invasion of Iraq. He responded that it would take time to "gather the evidence and analyze the mounds of evidence." An interesting and revealing response. What it acknowledges is that during the time that Bush, Cheney, Powell, and Rice were telling the country that there was no doubt that there was a link between 9/11 and Iraq, they in fact had no evidence of it. Not only that, but they still don't have any evidence of it now, at least none that they know of. There may be some in those "mounds of evidence" that they need to analyze, but they just don't know yet.

This is really no surprise. The administration has already acknowledged that the intelligence it was relying on to assert that Iraq had a chemical weapons program was five years old. More and more light is being shed on the administrations manipulation of intelligence data to assert the existence of a nuclear weapons program in Iraq that was far more of a hope for Saddam than a reality.

The administration declared that there was a 9/11-Saddam connection, an active Iraqi chemical weapons program, and an Iraqi Nuclear weapons development program with such vigor and conviction that Congress and the American people believed it all must be true, that there must have been substantial evidence to support these claims. In fact, there was no evidence, merely a belief. We owe it not merely to ourselves, but to the world we profess to lead and which, like it or not, bears the brunt of our mistakes, to demand more from our leaders. We the people must hold Bush and his minions accountable for tales they have told and the turmoil they have created, for we are ultimately responsible.