Orrin Judd has produced a devastating response to Christopher Dickey's incredibly obtuse and frankly dishonest article in the current issue of Newsweek in which Dickey asserts that the only reason Bush went to war in Iraq was "to eliminate the supposedly clear and present danger Saddam Hussein posed with all that WMD, which wasn’t there, and the terror networks, which didn’t exist." It was only, Dickey insists, when the Sunni insurgency was inflicting heavy damage on US forces that Bush finally discovered a cause worth fighting for -- freedom for the Iraqi people.

This is the latest lie from the left. Yes..., lie! And I am outraged that a supposedly respectable organ like Newsweek would print such crap. Judd, who is much more polite person than am I simply prints President Bush's UN address of September, 2002 in which he stated:

If the Iraqi regime wishes peace, it will immediately and unconditionally forswear, disclose, and remove or destroy all weapons of mass destruction, long-range missiles, and all related material.

If the Iraqi regime wishes peace, it will immediately end all support for terrorism and act to suppress it, as all states are required to do by U.N. Security Council resolutions.

If the Iraqi regime wishes peace, it will cease persecution of its civilian population, including Shi'a, Sunnis, Kurds, Turkomans, and others, again as required by Security Council resolutions.

If the Iraqi regime wishes peace, it will release or account for all Gulf War personnel whose fate is still unknown. It will return the remains of any who are deceased, return stolen property, accept liability for losses resulting from the invasion of Kuwait, and fully cooperate with international efforts to resolve these issues, as required by Security Council resolutions.

If the Iraqi regime wishes peace, it will immediately end all illicit trade outside the oil-for-food program. It will accept U.N. administration of funds from that program, to ensure that the money is used fairly and promptly for the benefit of the Iraqi people.

If all these steps are taken, it will signal a new openness and accountability in Iraq. And it could open the prospect of the United Nations helping to build a government that represents all Iraqis -- a government based on respect for human rights, economic liberty, and internationally supervised elections.

The United States has no quarrel with the Iraqi people; they've suffered too long in silent captivity. Liberty for the Iraqi people is a great moral cause, and a great strategic goal. The people of Iraq deserve it; the security of all nations requires it. Free societies do not intimidate through cruelty and conquest, and open societies do not threaten the world with mass murder. The United States supports political and economic liberty in a unified Iraq.

Seems pretty clear to me. Bush's freedom initiative was there, and prominently so, right from the beginning. I wonder why Mr. Dickey and his friends on the left didn't notice it.

Link to Brothers Judd here.
Link to Dickey's article here.
Link to Bush's address here.