Top 40 Lies - no end in sight

The Bush Administration’s Top 40 Lies about War and Terrorism by Steve Perry via Craig’s BookNotes:

1. The administration was not bent on war with Iraq from 9/11 onward.
2. The invasion of Iraq was based on a reasonable belief that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction that posed a threat to the U.S., a belief supported by available intelligence evidence.
3. Saddam tried to buy uranium in Niger.
4. The aluminum tubes were proof of a nuclear program.
5. Iraq’s WMDs were sent to Syria for hiding.
6. The CIA was primarily responsible for any prewar intelligence errors or distortions regarding Iraq.
7. An International Atomic Energy Agency report indicated that Iraq could be as little as six months from making nuclear weapons.
8. Saddam was involved with bin Laden and al Qaeda in the plotting of 9/11.
9. The U.S. wants democracy in Iraq and the Middle East.
10. Ahmed Chalabi and the Iraqi National Congress are a homegrown Iraqi political force, not a U.S.-sponsored front.
11. The United States is waging a war on terror.
12. The U.S. has made progress against world terrorist elements, in particular by crippling al Qaeda.
13. The Bush administration has made Americans safer from terror on U.S. soil.
14. The Bush administration has nothing to hide concerning the events of September 11, 2001, or the intelligence evidence collected prior to that day.
15. U.S. air defenses functioned according to protocols on September 11, 2001.
16. The Bush administration had a plan for restoring essential services and rebuilding Iraq’s infrastructure after the shooting war ended.
17. The U.S. has made a good-faith effort at peacekeeping in Iraq during the postwar period.
18. Despite vocal international opposition, the U.S. was backed by most of the world, as evidenced by the 40-plus-member Coalition of the Willing.
19. This war was notable for its protection of civilians.
20. The looting of archaeological and historic sites in Baghdad was unanticipated.
21. Saddam was planning to provide WMD to terrorist groups.
22. Saddam was capable of launching a chemical or biological attack in 45 minutes.
23. The Bush administration is seeking to create a viable Palestinian state.
24. People detained by the U.S. after 9/11 were legitimate terror suspects.
25. The U.S. is obeying the Geneva conventions in its treatment of terror-related suspects, prisoners, and detainees.
26. Shots rang out from the Palestine hotel, directed at U.S. soldiers, just before a U.S. tank fired on the hotel, killing two journalists.
27. U.S. troops “rescued” Private Jessica Lynch from an Iraqi hospital.
28. The populace of Baghdad and of Iraq generally turned out en masse to greet U.S. troops as liberators.
29. A spontaneous crowd of cheering Iraqis showed up in a Baghdad square to celebrate the toppling of Saddam’s statue.
30. No major figure in the Bush administration said that the Iraqi populace would turn out en masse to welcome the U.S. military as liberators.
31. The U.S. achieved its stated objectives in Afghanistan, and vanquished the Taliban.
32. Careful science demonstrates that depleted uranium is no big risk to the population.
33. The looting of Iraqi nuclear facilities presented no big risk to the population.
34. U.S. troops were under attack when they fired upon a crowd of civilian protesters in Mosul.
35. U.S. troops were under attack when they fired upon two separate crowds of civilian protesters in Fallujah.
36. The Iraqis fighting occupation forces consist almost entirely of “Saddam supporters” or “Ba’ath remnants.”
37. The bidding process for Iraq rebuilding contracts displayed no favoritism toward Bush and Cheney’s oil/gas cronies.
38. “We found the WMDs!”
39. “The Iraqi people are now free.”
40. God told Bush to invade Iraq.