Just prior to the invasion of Iraq in March of last year, more than two-thirds of the public believed that Iraq was directly involved in the attacks on this country. I don't remember Bush or Cheney doing anything to correct the public of this idea.

Confronted with the point that the 9/11 Commission's report last week asserts no credible evidence of a "collaborative relationship" between the two, Cheney tries to escape, saying that the 9/11 Commission is wrong, he knows more secret stuff than it does but can't get into specifics.

This is something this administration continues to do, they know better than anyone else, but can't talk about it.
Is this supposed to re-assure us? One would think that by making such claims, the administration would have all their evidence to show the 911 commission right then and there.

What Bush and Cheney are doing is what they have been doing since the summer of 2002 -- confusing the concepts of war in Iraq and war on terrorism. In fact, Bush and Cheney have always made it a point to emphasize that their concept of a nation at war is defined as a war against terror -- almost never Iraq.

His initial line is that the press hates them, because it is confusing an important issue, that the absence of any information linking the former Iraqi regime to the 9/11 attacks is not the same as any assertion that there was no "tie" between Osama bin Laden's murderous organization and Saddam Hussein's Iraq.



The administration has already spent six months trying to avoid the truth that, again contrary to its assertions, Iraq had no stockpiled, ready-to-use weapons of mass destruction at the time of the invasion. They wouldn't give UN inspectors more time, only to turn around down the road saying that their own inspectors have to have more time. Rumsfeld tells the press
that they'll probably find what they're looking for by finding a guy
who knows a guy who'll lead them to what they're seeking. This goes beyond lame and pathetic.

This administration with all it's inquries, scandals, and commissions, have done nothing to leave me to believe that they
know what they are doing. They're fumbling from one screw up to the next, keeping Powell and Rice around, and Ari Fleischer before that to explain away their screw ups.