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The first moment I became absolutely sure that Bush was lying about the war, back in 2003, was while observing his reaction to the failure of inspectors to find WMD. He sped up. Cheney held secret meetings with oil barons and a map of Iraq on the wall. A prudent leader would have stepped back and said, "Wow, maybe I was wrong, I'm not risking human life, if Saddam really doesn't have any WMD."
The second moment came while observing his reaction to Joe Wilson. He tried to kill the messenger. A prudent, honest, and sincere person would have said, "Joe was right, the information we had about Saddam buying yellowcake was wrong. But in our zeal we were erring on the side of caution. I will immediately start a study on the ways we can do better with our intelligence gathering."
Flash forward four years to today. His reaction to the 18 month deadline - no accommodation; no consideration. Stop and think about how a prudent, sincere, and honest leader might react. I envision one going to Congress and saying, "We are trying to do everything we can to stabilize the country. The generals, envoys, and I will do everything in our power to get this job done within 18 months. We will keep you informed of all progress, and let you know immediately if we can not meet that deadline."
The unfortunate realization is that he has no intention whatsoever to end this - hence the vague objectives, the lack of progress reporting, the huge embassy, the permanent bases, the unwillingness to even speak about a future moment when it can be over. He lied to get us in and he's lying to keep us in.
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