When In Doubt, Lie

With the majority of Americans against them, the war's defenders have to make up opponents to debate...

Example #1- Dan Senor (former advisor to the Coalition Provisional Authority) on Fox News-

Yesterday on The O’Reilly Factor, former administration official Dan Senor told guest host John Kasich that “many leftist centered activists, political activists” — such as MoveOn.org — believe “we would be better off” if the United States withdrew from Afghanistan.

But when pressed by Kasich, Senor couldn’t name any progressives who have advocated pulling out from Afghanistan and admitted that MoveOn.org has called for withdrawal from Iraq, not Afghanistan.

Example #2- The White House media strategy in general-

Bush suggested last week that Democrats are promising voters to block additional money for continuing the war. Vice President Cheney this week said critics "claim retreat from Iraq would satisfy the appetite of the terrorists and get them to leave us alone." And Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, citing passivity toward Nazi Germany before World War II, said that "many have still not learned history's lessons" and "believe that somehow vicious extremists can be appeased."

Pressed to support these allegations, the White House yesterday could cite no major Democrat who has proposed cutting off funds or suggested that withdrawing from Iraq would persuade terrorists to leave Americans alone.

(David Weigel explores a similar false argument in the American Spectator.)

Facts are pesky things. I just hate them, don't you?

[PS- Mother Jones has an excellent 'lie by lie' timeline of the Iraq war:
Lie by Lie: Chronicle of a War Foretold: August 1990 to March 2003]