Yes, Virginia, Politicians Lie

It seems that Robert Kagan would like us to believe that it’s some kind of “conspiracy theory” to think that the Bush administration told some fibs when trying to sell the country on the merits of invading Iraq. Kagan proposes and Matt Duss disposes. I would add to what Duss says that if you think back to 2002 and early 2003 it was commonplace for supporters of the war to observe that Bush wasn’t making the “right case” or the “real case” for the war. It was always, in other words, understood among readers of Washington Post editorials and Tom Friedman op-eds and The Threatening Storm, The New Republic, and The Weekly Standard that the official sales pitch was just that — a sales pitch aimed at the rubes — and not the real argument.

Meanwhile, I just think it’s very strange that the accusation that the administration lied about this continues to be treated as a nuclear allegation, one step from tinfoil hat territory. Think about the present presidential campaign. If I were to say “both candidates have made misleading claims about their opponents and about their own plans” I think that would be considered the most staid conventional wisdom imaginable. And the same was true for 2004 and the same for 2000. Because, you know, practical politics is not a field that’s known for its scrupulous honesty.