re: #148 Killgore Trout

My point is that I don’t think it was a deliberate deception. The articles cited claiming that Bush carefully planted subliminal suggestions in his speeches is absurd.
Bush was not an evil monster hell bent on destruction. He was doing what he thought best. He was imperfect and I wasn’t a fan of the war either but these claims that he was intentionally hiding or manufacturing evidence are just stupid. There’s no difference between Michael Moore and Glenn Beck. Deranged talking points and conspiracies.

I don’t think that he was an evil monster hell bent on destruction, and I don’t think that anyone here has said that he was.

There are some facts that remain, however:

He launched a war while being ignorant of the region. For example, there is solid evidence that he didn’t even know much at all about the existence of different sects of Islam.

His administration cherry-picked evidence to support pre-determined goals. This is also easily documented. They also systematically went about undermining evidence presented that contradicted their rationale, and undermining those who would present such evidence.

He clearly presented the case to the American public that there was no question as to whether or not Saddam presented an eminent threat to the U.S. - you don’t have to think that they “manufactured evidence” to realize that they presented a misleading picture.

Their process of policy development stunk from top to bottom. They employed cronies and complete non-experts to fulfill key positions. They failed to adapt their policies despite abundant evidence of their failures. The continuously mislead the public about the level of progress.

None of that is excusable at any level in my book.