Bush Lied

Badger Blues writes of the administration argument for war in Iraq:

I don’t think the lies were deliberate. I think the Bush Administration were so blinded by ideology that facts and warnings which disagreed with their pre-conceived idea that Iraq was a threat that required an immediate war were ignored or not acknowledged. Insufficient skepticism was employed when looking at claims made by Iraqi defectors and third parties who had a huge stake in getting us to depose Saddam.

I agree with all of this, except the use of the word "lies." Maybe I'm just playing semantics, but the above is why I don't accept the "Bush Lied" argument. Lying implies intent, i.e. the administration deliberately mislead the American people into supporting the war, based on information they knew was bogus. I have seen nothing to indicate that. Everything suggests they were so convinced of their conclusions that their reading of intelligence information was warped and distorted, as Badger Blues writes. Whatever supported their conclusions was right, whatever contradicted their conclusions was wrong. That's not lying, that's stupidity. So, the mantra should be "Bush was an Incompetent Fool", not "Bush Lied."

And to the administration defense that Clinton had the same beliefs about Hussein, I point out that Clinton did not go to war on those beliefs, Bush did. Therefore, it is appropriate to hold the latter to a higher standard.