To avoid having to account for his administration’s misleading statements before the war with Iraq, President Bush has tried denial, saying he did not skew the intelligence. He’s tried to pass the buck and blame the CIA. Lately, he’s gone on the attack, accusing Democrats in Congress of aiding the terrorists. In Alaska, he trotted out the same tedious deflection on Iraq that he usually attempts when his back is against the wall: he claims that questioning his actions three years ago is a betrayal of the troops in battle today. But like the WMD reports that started the whole thing, the only problem is that none of it has been true. The administration had little company in saying that Iraq was actively trying to build a nuclear weapon.

The president and his top advisers may very well have sincerely believed that Iraq had WMD. But they did not allow the Americans, or even Congress, to have the information necessary to make reasoned judgments of their own. It’s obvious that the Bush administration misled Americans about Hussein’s weapons and his terrorist connections. We need to know how that happened and why. Bush said that he welcomed debate, even in a time of war, but that “it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began.” We agree, but it is he and his team who are rew-riting history.