WASHINGTON— George W. Bush yesterday conferred the United States' highest honor on three men he said symbolized America's "good influence" on the world in a formal ceremony that immediately reignited the debate over his war in Iraq.

My hunch is that George Bush wasn't using the same standard when honoring Tenet and Bremer that was applied to previous honorees like the Pope, (children's entertainer) Mr. Rogers, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr.

David Wade, a spokesperson for Senator John Kerry

Among those beaming as the U.S. president presented him with the Medal of Freedom was former CIA director George Tenet, who has been blamed for an intelligence failure in Iraq of historic proportions, including his assurance that finding weapons of mass destruction in that country would be a "slam dunk."

Tenet joined retired Gen. Tommy Franks and former Iraqi administrator L. Paul Bremer in an exclusive club that includes Pope John Paul II, civil rights leaders Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr., and a list of former American presidents.

Democrats and other critics branded the trio as three who committed some of the biggest blunders in the run-up to the war in Iraq and the disastrous post-invasion phase, which shows no signs of stabilizing.

"This honor goes to three men who have played pivotal roles in great events, and whose efforts have made our country more secure and advanced the cause of human liberty," Bush said.

In choosing words like "liberators" and lauding them as men who helped free 50 million from the shackles of tyranny, Bush conjured up memories of his pre-emptive declaration of "Mission accomplished" aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln in May, 2003.

The ceremony was held in the ornate East Room of the White House on a day when seven more Iraqis were killed in a suicide bombing outside Baghdad's fortified Green zone.

It was the second bombing near the U.S. embassy in as many days.

Ten more U.S. Marines have been killed in three days, and the U.S. is planning to boost its military contingent to 150,000 in the coming days, its highest level since the war began.

With the U.S. death toll at 1,296 and complaints rising from the rank-and-file, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld remained under fire yesterday. Leading Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona said he has "no confidence" in Rumsfeld's leadership.

Ned Lebow, a military expert at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, said yesterday's ceremony had a whiff of hypocrisy to it:

"It's like being kicked into the (Canadian) Senate when you are no longer needed in the House of Commons," he said.

"The president is buying some silence, and perhaps compliance, in awarding these medals."

Tenet, he said, was guilty of ignoring or challenging those in the agency who fought to have the Iraqi weapons evidence strengthened before it was presented to the White House.

Tenet, who also came under heavy criticism for not being sufficiently vigilant in the days before Sept. 11, 2001, has recently criticized the creation of a new security czar in an intelligence bill about to be signed by Bush.

Bremer, the civilian administrator from May 2003 until the June 2004 handover to an Iraqi interim government, is responsible for one of the most dubious post-invasion decisions in disbanding the Iraqi army.

He also came under fire for a policy that saw the most skilled government officials stripped of their positions in Baghdad because of their past allegiance to Saddam Hussein.

More recently, Bremer joined the ranks of those who criticized Rumsfeld and Bush for not having more soldiers on the ground to keep order in the critical post-invasion phase.

Franks, who led the invasion, is held at least partly responsible for the decision not to put more U.S. troops on the ground to try to contain the insurgency that continues to kill American troops and Iraqis supportive of the U.S. occupation.

He advocated a bigger contingent but bowed to his political masters.

"Did George Tenet get the Medal of Freedom for his `slam dunk' case for war based on weapons of mass destruction that didn't exist?" asked David Wade, a spokesperson for Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate.

"Did Paul Bremer clinch this honor for speaking out against the administration's bungled war planning only after he'd left the job?

"My hunch is that George Bush wasn't using the same standard when honoring Tenet and Bremer that was applied to previous honorees like the Pope, (children's entertainer) Mr. Rogers, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr.''

2004 © Copyright Toronto Star Newspapers Limited

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