One is that the WMDs still haven’t been found. Two is that the Bush administration misrepresented and just plain lied about the evidence concerning Iraq’s WMDs and the threat they posed. And three–the factor that could finally make the first two bite politically–is that soldiers are dying in Iraq every day and that doesn’t seem likely to stop anytime soon.
On point two, see Josh Marshall’s excellent column in The Hill and long post on his website about increasingly obvious administration fibs, like not knowing the alleged Niger uranium purchases by Iraq were bogus. It’s just getting harder and harder for the administration to maintain that they had no knowledge of the problems with the “evidence” they were using and that, therefore, they could not possibly have been lying.
On point three, today brought news on the deaths of six British soldiers in a southern Iraqi town, to add to the steady stream of other deaths from various attacks. The danger sign here for the administration is the rise in the number of Americans who feel the level of military casualties in Iraq is unacceptable, as revealed in a just-released Washington Post poll. Right after the statue of Saddam came down in Baghdad, just 28 percent said the level of casualities was unacceptable, while 66 percent said it was acceptable. Now, it’s getting close to even: 44 percent say the level of casualties is unacceptable and 51 percent say it is acceptable.
We’re not far away from the point where “unacceptable” will outnumber “acceptable” It will be interesting to see what happens then. And whether the public is still not bother about the missing WMDs and the administration’s deceptions about them.