When someone suspects something but tells you they know it for a fact, that's a lie. And not "muddying up the waters" means, to me, not telling us the truth because it would get in the way of getting the war they wanted. When they cite evidence that's very much in dispute as gospel, well, they're now reaping what they sowed. I don't think any impartial person can compare what the Bush administration actually knew with what they actually claimed to know and think to themselves "What a bunch of straight-shooters."
We may disagree on what we think they went to war for and we can disagree on whether or not it was a necessary or counter-productive effort. But the litmus test for me on whether someone's paying attention to the world in a responsible way is how skeptical they are about the honesty of the effort that got us into Iraq.
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