Democrats have to be careful about events they cannot control. The real issues are reconstruction in Iraq and whether the administration can cut the attrition rate of American soldiers. The uranium issue brought Democrats home and removed the post-9-11 glow from Bush. A Democratic Senate aide called it “the scratch in the Teflon that allows it to flake off.” Bush’s credibility has been damaged. He posited that Iraq was a clear and present danger to America, and few people believe that anymore. The press corps has been shaken out of its lapdog state. It’s much more difficult for the administration to stonewall. And it’s not just about 16 words; it’s about a pattern of Bush misstatements, overstatements and false truths on a range of issues.
The war in Iraq was fought to disarm Saddam, but the way the commanders on the ground went in after Uday and Qusay shows the administration is not serious about finding weapons of mass destruction. These were the two best intelligence assets, short of Saddam, that the administration could capture. U.S. troops offered them a chance to surrender, and then called in a barrage from helicopter gunships. By killing the brothers, the administration saved itself the headache of a trial but lost the opportunity to prove a link with Al Qaeda or solve the mystery of the missing WMD.
I don’t necessarily quarrel with the decision. Bringing peace and a new order to Iraq would be harder with Saddam’s sons alive. But if the Bush administration really were looking for WMD, these two men were key. It increasingly looks as though the WMD have disappeared. They may be scattered and already in the hands of terrorists. Saddam could have destroyed them before the war, or years earlier, and simply was bluffing to menace his neighbors. Or they could be buried somewhere. Finding them would be such a huge win for the administration that you would think they would have gone to greater lengths to take Uday and Qusay alive.
The core of Bush’s appeal as a political figure is that he’s a straight talker, the un-Clinton. The flap over the 16 words and Bush’s lawyerly refusal to take responsibility has reframed the way voters look at him. His poll ratings are approaching pre-9-11 levels: he was at 51 percent then; the most recent polls put him at 53 to 55 percent now. The report released this week on the findings of the House and Senate Intelligence committees on the events leading up to 9-11 further fuels doubts about Bush’s credibility. Twenty-eight pages that document ties between the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Al Qaeda were blackened out at the request of the White House.
There’s been a bipartisan cloaking of the truth about Saudi Arabia for some time. The Clinton administration played the same double game, protecting America’s oil ally. But Clinton’s candor is no longer on trial. Now it’s Bush’s turn.
