With friends like these, who needs Democrats?
By Bill Schneider
CNN Political Unit
(CNN) -- President Bush has been put on the defensive this week about the decision to go to war in Iraq. But the political Play of the Week wasn't the Democrats' doing.
President Bush's friends and allies have thrown him on the defensive about the war in Iraq.
On Monday, former occupation administrator Paul Bremer told an audience, "We never had enough troops on the ground" in Iraq to prevent looting and lawlessness. Bremer later described his criticism as a "tactical disagreement."
The same day, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was asked to describe the connection between former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. He said, "I have not seen any strong, hard evidence that links the two."
Then Charles Duelfer, who was chosen by the Bush administration to complete the investigation of Iraq's weapons program, dropped his own bombshell. "It is clear that Saddam chose not to have weapons at a point in time before the war," he said at a Wednesday Senate hearing.
Duelfer's Iraq Survey Group reported that Saddam Hussein had ended Iraq's nuclear program in 1991 and they "found no evidence to suggest concerted efforts to restart the program."
The report also said, "Iraq unilaterally destroyed its undeclared chemical weapons stockpile in 1991" and found "no direct evidence that Iraq, after 1996, had plans for a new biological weapons program."
Duelfer did report this about Saddam Hussein. Duelfer said at Wednesday's Senate hearing,"he clearly had ambitions with respect to weapons of mass destruction."
But actual weapons?
Secretary of State Colin Powell stated Wednesday, "It turns out there were no active stockpiles that anybody's been able to find yet."
Tony Blair said on September 28, "The evidence that Saddam having actual biological and chemical weapons, as opposed to the capability to develop them, has turned out to be wrong. I acknowledge that. I accept it."
Et tu, Tony?
President Bush hasn't acknowledged any mistakes. On Thursday he said, "Based on all the information we have to date, I believe we were right to take action."
His Democratic opponent expressed astonishment. "The president of the United States and the vice president of the United States may well be the last two people on the planet who won't face the truth about Iraq," Sen. John Kerry said on Thursday
But it wasn't the Democrats who created this problem for President Bush. It was his "friends." They get the political Play of the Week.
With friends like these, who needs Democrats?
