One problem with all this: This was all out in the open before Bush invaded and occupied Iraq. Joe Wilson was not the lone whistle-blower. Chief United Nations weapons inspector Hans Blix told us over and over that Sadaam Hussein had no WMD. UN chief nuclear inspector Mohamed El Baradei told us that there was no evidence Iraq had a nuclear weapons development program. The yellow-tail uranium story was debunked long before the invasion. Back in the period when Republicans were flooding the news networks with the catchy slogan that an invasion would be in "weeks, not months"---when Colin Powell made his allegations in the UN, when Bush laid out his rationale for war in his State of the Union address---it was clear (at least in the international press) that they were lying.
I recently watched the most brazen and bare-faced liar of our age, Condoleeza Rice, claim on the Sunday morning news shows that in 2002-3 everyone thought that Sadaam had WMD. It's infuriating to see the Republican smokescreen strategy work yet again, as we debate the details of why they should have known when the truth is that they did know, they lied, and they killed tens of thousands of people for no remotely justifiable reason.
And while I'm on the subject, one great big whopping US apology is still owed to the French.
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