After a year of systematically lying to the American people about the Baghdad government's alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in order to rationalize an unjust war against a virtually defenseless Iraq, Washington seems to be in the process of changing its tune.
Now, after searching throughout Iraq to no avail and facing harsh questions about its veracity, the Bush administration is suggesting it was the victim of "bogus Iraqi defectors who planted disinformation to mislead the West before the war."
According to the Los Angeles Times Aug. 28, "U.S. and allied intelligence agencies [presumably the British, since only London agreed with Washington's conclusions] have launched a major effort to determine if they were" hoodwinked by Iraqi agents into believing Baghdad had a huge storehouse of WMD.
The newspaper notes that "As evidence, officials say former Iraqi operatives have confirmed since the war that [President Saddam] Hussein's regime sent 'double agents' disguised as defectors to the West to plant fabricated intelligence. In other cases, Baghdad apparently tricked legitimate defectors into funneling phony tips about weapons production and storage sites."
The purpose of this, it has been alleged, was to deflect a U.S. attack by conveying the impression that Iraq was well armed. The Iraqi government, of course, repeatedly insisted that it did not possess the weapons and pleaded for the UN to continue its inspections, but that apparently doesn't count.
In other words, the American people are now supposed to believe the Baghdad government intentionally supplied Washington with misinformation that forced the Bush administration to launch a preemptive war to destroy the Baghdad government. This makes about as much sense as thinking Washington would actually send 150,000 troops to invade a country that did in fact possess sufficient weapons of mass destruction to wipe out the attacking army.
What's happening is a classic example of damned if you do, damned if you don't. If the weapons are found it proves Iraq lied. If the weapons are not found, it proves Iraq lied.
Thousands of U.S. soldiers and agents are still searching for the elusive WMD, of course, and it remains entirely possible that the White House eventually will fake "evidence" that it has located some qualifying weapons. But won't UN weapons inspectors be able to determine whether the evidence is genuine or fabricated? Possibly — and that's why Washington has prohibited the UN weapons inspectors from entering Iraq or participating in any phase of the massive hunt.