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Fri. Feb 13, 2004

Circle of Lies, Revisited

Circle of Lies, Revisited – Back in April, shortly after we were entertained by the daily lies of the Iraqi Information Minister, I wrote about Iraq’s Deadly Circle of Lies: ”As tidbits and shreds of evidence leak out, it’s becoming clear: Frenchy InfoMin isn’t an aberration, he is a reflection of Saddam’s regime, and exemplifies the reason they tipped over like a drunken monkey.”

”They believed their own hype. They didn’t know it was lies. It was a self perpetuating circle, and it has brought their house down around them.”

Now the NYT tells us of a Pentagon study that details some of the lies they told themselves: ”The study, a rough-draft history of the war from the perspective of Iraqi leaders, offers a scathing history of a Stalinist, paranoid leadership circle in Baghdad that guaranteed its own destruction. The interrogations yielded a portrait of a government disconnected from reality in peace and in war, where members of Mr. Hussein’s inner circle routinely lied to him and each other about Iraqi military capacities.”

Their circle of lies had them convinced there likely wouldn’t be a ground invasion, just a little bombing. And despite our obvious buildup in Kuwait, they were certain that if we did invade, our main attack would come … from Jordan.

In retrospect, it’s little wonder Saddam ended up stuck in a hole in the ground. In fact, it seems a minor miracle he held out as long as he did.