Lie Big or Go Home

The New York Times reports that President Bush, a day after reiterating his apparently baseless assertions of a working relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda, argued that 9/11 attacks justified the Iraq war:

Today, as he stood before a sea of uniformed soldiers, Mr. Bush said over and over again that 9/11 was the reason the United States had to go to war in Iraq more than a year ago.

Why does the President keep doing this? Because he's got nothing left.

I realize that many people are outraged at the baldfaced nature of the President's and Vice President's increasingly blatant prevarications. But in the coming months no one should expect that the President will back away from his insinuations about Saddam/Al-Qaeda connections. Indeed, he will keep trying to connect the Iraq war to the 9/11 attacks in every way possible. He will simply continually redefine his terms to reach his desired conclusion. If the 9/11 Commission says there was no collaboration between Iraq and Al Qaeda, he will say that the Commission agreed that there were "contacts," even if those contacts occurred years ago and didn't lead to anything.

Of course, on this theory of "contacts," John Kerry would be in cahoots with George W. Bush, since they've had numerous contacts over the years. Indeed, we probably have greater reason to declare war on members of the Reagan Administration, who had numerous contacts with Saddam, some of which led to actual cooperation.

The President knows that his Presidency is going down the drain. Desperate times call for desperate measures. His Administration is already deeply morally compromised; why should he scruple to be honest at this point?