The trigger for this is a recent discussion over on Ta-Nehesi Coates blog looking back at the decision to invade Iraq. Most of the comments trend liberal, which is usually okay because that's what I am. But some of them assert the administration lied us into the war, which troubles me.
Yes, there was exaggeration and probably the occasional lie, but I don't believe there were many conscious lies. What was going on was people believed what they wanted to believe was true; they deluded themselves and then they deluded the rest of us.
I won't support my position by rehashing the events in 2002/3; that's tedious. I would point to a parallel I see in more recent events:
It seems apparent that the Romney campaign and many media figures on the right fully believed that Romney was going to win the election. They told us so repeatedly. In my surfing I'd hit Fox News and see Pat Caddell et. al. confidently predicting victory. After election day I don't recall anyone saying: "I knew all along Romney was doomed to defeat, but I lied to our audience just to keep spirits up." Now there's no reason for a pundit to make a prediction he knows to be false and which will be proved to be false within a week or a month. That wouldn't be rational. [ed.--who says people are rational?]
So I can only conclude they were self-deluded, just as I think GWB and Cheney et.al. were back in 2003.
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