Cornyn Strikes Again

Texas Sen. John Cornyn, Nov. 7, speaking on the Senate floor: "The Democrat leaders' latest accusation that the administration has manipulated intelligence and exaggerated the threat is nothing more than an effort to use the war in Iraq for political gain, and that is shameful."

If Bush neither manipulated intelligence nor exaggerated the threat, then Democrats have nothing to gain, politically or otherwise, from an investigation. What would be shameful, however, is for an administration to intentionally distort its depiction of the state of affairs it feels necessitates military action; if that were the case with the current White House and Iraq, it's vital that Bush be held accountable.

Republicans tend to downplay the significance of the manner in which Bush's Iraq policy was promoted. But war policy is not any policy: it's not like the consequences are lower taxes or better education. This policy's consequences are measured in terms of U.S. military deaths, Iraqi civilian deaths, and so on. The ethical bar for selling a war policy ought to be correspondingly higher.