OpinionJournal - Wonder Land

OpinionJournal - Wonder Land

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Why We Went to War
What if people start believing that "Bush lied"?

BY DANIEL HENNINGER
Friday, November 18, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST

Would Senators Sam Nunn, Pat Moynihan, Bob Kerrey, Chuck Robb, David Boren or Henry M. Jackson have conducted their opposition to President Bush's war policies in Iraq as have Senators Harry Reid, Richard Durbin, Ted Kennedy and Barbara Boxer? The former group stood for the idea of a loyal opposition; the latter stand simply in opposition.

In the past week, President Bush, his vice president and defense secretary have begun to "push back" against the current incarnation of Democratic opposition. And so the political air drips with such edifying words as "lied," "dishonest" and Sen. Reid's conclusive "a vote of no confidence."

Yes, politics ain't beanbag. But there is a larger danger in the Democratic strategy of attempting to make George Bush into the Wizard of Oz, a man whose every statement about threats to American security is fantasy and falsity. Pounding through the media that the prewar intelligence was a conscious lie may incline the American people to believe the whole Iraq enterprise is false, and worse, that the very notion of weapons of mass destruction is also doubtful. The psychology of the big lie can sometimes run out of control....