Debunking Bush's reason for war.(THE LAST WORD)(Senate Intelligence Committee releases report on Iraqi war, Georeg W. Bush)(Report)

The 400-page report released on September 8 by the Senate Intelligence Committee has emphatically declared that there never was any connection between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda. The Bush administration justified starting the March 2003 war against Iraq with strong protestations that the Iraq leader was in bed with the 9/11 terrorists. Over recent years, when the reputed direct links to Osama bin Laden couldn't be demonstrated, Mr. Bush continued to insist that connections did exist by claiming as recently as August 21 that Saddam "had relations with Zarqawi," the al-Qaeda official slain in a U.S.-led raid last June.

Pointedly countering the administration's repeated protestations, the committee cited a 2005 CIA assertion that Iraq's government "did not have a relationship, harbor, or turn a blind eye toward Zarqawi and his associates." Further citing the CIA report, the Senate document stated that "Saddam Hussein was distrustful of al-Qaeda and viewed Islamic extremists as a threat to his regime, refusing all requests from al-Qaeda to provide material or operational support."

Referring additionally to false information being given the administration by the exile group Iraqi National Congress (IRC), the report noted that IRC partisans wanted to give the Bush administration some reasons to attack Iraq; therefore, they reported that Saddam's government had nuclear, chemical, and biological weaponry. The Bush administration continued funding the IRC, despite being warned as far back as 2002 that the group's information was unreliable.

As more Americans conclude that the war was a mistake and should be ended, members of the Bush administration, including the president, have sought to shift the reason for the conflict. Original claims that Saddam was involved in the 9/11 attack, that he was working with bin Laden's al-Qaeda, and that he was planning to use weapons of mass destruction have all evaporated. Now the war is being fought, we are told, to wipe out terrorism. But the tactics being employed have resulted in increasing the number of terrorists, not only among massive numbers of Iraqis angry about the widespread destruction of their nation, but also among Muslims worldwide who view the American action as a war against their religion.

Lost in all the discussion about the lies and falsehoods used to justify this tragic war is the little-known determination of top Bush administration officials to attack Iraq before the 9/11 tragedy. After having served together in previous administrations, Dick ...