THE END OF THE SEARCH
January 13, 2005

by Joe Sobran

     What can we say? The search for Iraq's "weapons of 
mass destruction" has finally ended. None were found, of 
course. Even the hawks who insisted that Saddam Hussein 
had them aren't demanding that we keep looking.

     President Bush, not missing a beat, says the war on 
Iraq was still justified -- even though the very 
justification he insistently gave for it has been 
exploded. He now talks as if he'd never believed it 
himself. He probably didn't.

     Bush and his people -- Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, 
Rice, Tenet, et cetera -- repeatedly said there was "no 
doubt" that the weapons existed, threatening us. Prime 
Minister Tony Blair warned Britain that an Iraqi attack 
might be just 45 minutes away. The war propaganda 
continued, monotonously, for months upon months.

     It was all nonsense. But skeptics were scolded for 
not believing a president who "knows so much more than we 
do." What he "knew" was that his CIA director called the 
evidence of those weapons a "slam dunk, Mr. President." 
When people call you "Mr. President," they're going to 
tell you what you want to be told.

     As the columnist Richard Cohen points out, CBS News 
just fired four of its top executives for getting one 
story wrong. Bush hasn't fired any of the yes-men who 
were wrong about a far graver matter. But that's what 
yes-men are supposed to do: go with the boss, right or 
wrong. Maybe especially when he's wrong.

     Back when Bill Clinton was still swearing on his 
Bibles that he'd done nothing untoward with Miss 
Lewinsky, he hauled out his whole cabinet to vouch for 
him. They dutifully did so. You might wonder how, say, 
his secretaries of state and agriculture could be so sure 
of his innocence in this matter, but again there was "no 
doubt." And having staked their honor on Clinton's honor, 
none of them resigned when he finally admitted his lie.

     "I'm with you when you're right, governor, but not 
when you're wrong," an aide is said to have told 
Louisiana's legendary rascal Earl Long. Long quickly set 
him straight: "You stupid son of a bitch, I don't need 
you when I'm right!"

     Bush doesn't need his underlings when he's right, as 
long as they serve him well when he's wrong. And they've 
certainly done that. Colin Powell especially sacrificed 
much of the esteem he'd built over a long career when he 
parroted Bush's baseless assertions. The phrase "weapons 
of mass destruction" was Bush's Monica Lewinsky. For 
months you couldn't turn the radio on without hearing it.

     And once more, nobody is resigning because it turned 
out to be a deception. Nor is indignation sweeping the 
country. People who voted for Bush aren't acting 
disillusioned. Hawkish pundits aren't blushing. Even 
opponents of the war aren't excited. A cynical 
resignation seems to be universal.

     The only conclusion I can draw is that we all take 
presidential prevarication for granted now. It's as if 
lying were part of the job description for the nation's 
highest office.

     So here's the story: Republicans were indignant when 
Clinton lied about his Oval Office antics. It was matter 
for impeachment. The Starr Report supplied the details, 
right down to the cigar. Then Bush restored morality to 
the White House and lied us into a war, and we lived 
happily ever after.

     Clinton lied so glibly, even when he didn't have to, 
that everything he said was taken with a grain of salt. 
He was already "Slick Willie" before he was president. 
Eventually his own party had to deal with his notorious 
character: Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut gave a 
resounding speech on the Senate floor rebuking him, and 
Vice President Al Gore, running for president, played 
down his connection with his own boss.

     Nothing like that is happening among Republicans 
today. The party is united behind a president who started 
a war under false pretenses, which then veered off into 
something else. Nobody feels impelled to express even 
mild reservations. So far there has been no Republican 
Joe Lieberman, trying to show that the party still has a 
conscience. Or at least a capacity for embarrassment.

     Clinton told lots of little lies, and the habit 
caught up with him. Bush has told one deadly whopper, and 
he's still getting away with it.

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