The Wages of Delusion: Iraq in Crisis (long Philly Inquirer Editorial)

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/editorial/9699219.htm

Posted on Sun, Sep. 19, 2004

Editorial | Iraq in Crisis

The wages of delusion


It's little wonder the Bush reelection team would rather see voters jawing about a war that ended 30 years ago than about the one going on right now in Iraq. With their amazing gift for mass distraction, the President's strategists have bamboozled a good chunk of the American public about the Iraq war. They've been aided by a Democratic challenger who can't seem to stop tripping over his own shoelaces. But last week, the truth - as ugly and distressing as it is - kept poking through the relentless spin.

Here are the two central truths about the war in Iraq that voters might want to ponder before Nov. 2:

(1) The situation in Iraq, while not hopeless, is perilous and getting worse by the day - in part because almost every prediction upon which President Bush's team has based its actions has been proven wrong. Bush's many adjustments in Iraq policy (the unkind would call them flip-flops) haven't compensated for how the occupation was bungled at its start.

(2) The Iraq invasion, far from being a bold stroke in the war on terror, was a fatal distraction from it that has left America more vulnerable.

much more>

This is an unusually strong statement from the Inquirer, which usually hedges every opinion.