But two organizations recently released a study that stops just short of using that term, after doing exhaustive research of what was said by administration officials in comparison to the information that was available at the time.
The study, which got a surprising amount of media coverage, identified 935 false statements regarding Iraq over the two-year period following September 11, 2001.
The study concluded that the statements "were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses."
...
It found that in speeches, briefings, interviews and other venues, Bush and administration officials stated unequivocally on at least 532 occasions that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or was trying to produce or obtain them or had links to al-Qaida or both.
"It is now beyond dispute that Iraq did not possess any weapons of mass destruction or have meaningful ties to al-Qaida," according to Charles Lewis and Mark Reading-Smith of the Fund for Independence in Journalism staff members, writing an overview of the study. "In short, the Bush administration led the nation to war on the basis of erroneous information that it methodically propagated and that culminated in military action against Iraq on March 19, 2003."
The full study can be found on the Center for Public Integrity's web site, which also contains a graphic that would be humorous if so many human lives had not been lost. Titled "False Statements by Month," it shows the number of lies growing steadily throughout 2002, peaking in February 2003 at 140, and then gradually declining after that.
I'm not sure that most Americans needed such a detailed study to realize that the administration is morally and spiritually bankrupt, but it's nice to see someone willing to call a spade a spade, backed up by irrefutable research, and get some media coverage for doing so.
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