Bush Lied, Kids Died, Part 1

Sometimes I think people base their conclusions on whether it will make a catchy slogan on a protest sign.

“Bush Lied, Kids Died!”

Catchy and concise, but illogical and wrong.

Let me illustrate.

Example #1

1) Bob tells Ken his favorite color is green.
2) Ken tells Jill that Bob’s favorite color is green.
3) Jill finds out Bob’s favorite color is really blue.
4) Jill calls Ken a liar.

Is Jill fair calling Ken a liar?

No. Bob was the liar. Ken was not. Ken told Jill what he believed was the truth.

Example #2

1) Bob tells Ken that their store did $101,000 in monthly sales.
2) Ken tells Jill that monthly sales are $101,000.
3) Jill checks the receipts and finds that monthly sales were really $110,000.
4) Jill calls Ken a liar.
5) Ken checks Bob’s calculations and finds a typo. The $101,000 should have been $110,000.

In this example, neither Ken nor Bob are liars. Bob was wrong and Ken believed him.

I’m sure that you’ve figured out my analogy by now.

I believe example #2 is indicative of what happened prior to the coalition invasion of Iraq. The White House received bad information. They (wrongly, as it turned out) had confidence in the efficiency of our intelligence services. The information was corroborated by multiple foreign intelligence services. The White House believed, in former CIA director George Tenet’s words, that the case for finding WMDs in Iraq was a “slam dunk”.

But “The CIA gave the White House faulty information and Bush believed them” isn’t a very catchy slogan. Try painting that on a sign!

Coming Soon: Part 2!