In Good Faith (That Uranium Story again)

Iraq: Critics won't let go of the charge that President Bush misled when he claimed that Saddam Hussein tried to buy uranium in Africa. They could save themselves some worry if they'd only listen to Tony Blair.

No matter how hot it gets for the British prime minister — and the heat was certainly turned up last week when he faced a hostile House of Commons — he maintains that Iraq indeed sought uranium for developing nuclear weapons, as Bush contended in his State of the Union address.

The White House would also shield itself from some grief if it were simply to point to Blair's position rather than back off the claim, as it has on and off over the last few days.

Better to show a little firmness, as outgoing press secretary Ari Fleischer did Monday when he said, "No one can accurately tell you" the Iraq claim was wrong and it "still may be absolute fact."

It's a strength of our system that authorities can be challenged. Otherwise power goes unchecked, and that invites abuse.

Blair told Parliament last week: "In the 1980s, Iraq purchased somewhere in the region of 200 or more tons of uranium from Niger. The evidence that we had that the Iraqi government had gone back to try to purchase further amounts of uranium from Niger did not come from so-called forged documents; they came from separate intelligence."

Sounds compelling. But critics are critics, and politics are politics. That means opponents can't help but seize on reports the CIA investigated the uranium charge and was not able to confirm it.

Which brings up another potential problem: the apparent weakness of our intelligence.

Because of the nature of the business, intelligence achievements almost always go unknown to the public while its failures are magnified. Though shortcomings are expected and even tolerated on some level, the gaps in our intelligence — from the 9-11 attack to the inability to find, eliminate or confirm dead Osama bin Laden and Saddam — seem to be piling up.

In addition to Blair's fierce insistence that the intelligence is correct, it should be noted that the case against Saddam was not made solely on the claim that he tried to purchase material for nuclear arms development. The critics want to make it so, but there were other legitimate factors that argued for invasion then, as well as reasons that are being unearthed by the coalition now.

The mass of evidence makes it hard to doubt that Bush acted in good faith when he referred to the British report. Anyone who believes that he didn't also has to believe that he and his administration, and Blair and his administration, connived to pass off a big lie as a pretext for war.

With two governments that aren't exactly ideological soul mates involved, that's unlikely.

What is likely is that despite the prewar acknowledgment by nearly the entire world that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, the only men willing to do something about it will continue to be blistered by criticism — whether it's warranted or not.

I hope American people can see through how evil the Democrats and mainstream media are. They are willing to undermine our national security in order for them to gain power.

C'mon, have some class...

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"I hope American people can see through how evil the Democrats and mainstream media are. They are willing to undermine our national security in order for them to gain power."

How are their rants undermining National Security? They have a right to question just as we do. If this were the slime clinton, we would all over him. Even though I don't like Pres. Bush's socialistic domestic programs, I give him the benefit of the doubt and believe he was misled by people from clinton's admin who should have been replaced when he took over.

The National Security cop-out does not wash with me as it is a crutch the gov't uses when they want to hide the truth.

FReegards

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