With regard to Iraq, WMDs and the Bush administration, a greater disconnect exists between knowledge and action, than what is contained in the issue presented by the old 500 WMD shells. That greater issue is information the administration has been given concerning sites in Iraq where new WMDs were buried in 2002-early 2003, cement covered their graves and lakes flooded on top of the cement - yet these suspected sites have not been investigated to date.
The GOP House representatives who want to authenticate the 500 old WMD shells, as part of the valid claim of pre-war WMDs in Iraq, should be hosting a joint news conference to report on and demand the administration investigate the sites of buried WMDs the administration has been told about that it refuses to look into.
The administration's blindness, deafness or sense of not-caring about this issue has made me conclude that the permanent government, under GWB, even with a Rumsfield at DOD, can insulate itself from alot of sins, unless a citizenry that is better informed than the President is by that permanent government, can force the President's attention through our elected representatives lifting these issues up in public.
Yes, I said "better informed than the President", because GWB's personal habits (1)defer extensively to his subordinates within his general position on something (does not want to look at details), (2)does not read or explore much for any information outside of what is presented to him by his own official channels (hates to read), (3)even prefers that alot of information that is written for him be presented to him in oral briefings. A perfect mechanism for the permanent government to hide alot of sins from a President, while seeming to be carrying out official policy; because it has, it keeps, it hides many of the inconvenient details from a President that generally does not want and does not inquire about details.
Well-said. In 2004 I started collecting every news item I could find on the whereabouts and proof of Saddam's WMD program (one item I will post shortly). But as the White House began to play down the WMD story, and particularly began to parrot the "conventional wisdom" (i.e., lies) that Saddam didn't have WMDs, I figured why should I knock myself out looking into the public record to verify Saddam's WMD threat when the Administration itself doesn't seem to care? This has been the biggest mystery regarding Pres. Bush's administration.