Let's alter history just a little bit, and imagine that President Bush had given us an accurate case for war in Iraq 18 months ago.

``My fellow Americans, I'm appearing before you today to ask for your support as I make the most solemn decision a president can make: Committing our military troops to war.

``We must remove Saddam Hussein from power, although his only known threat to the United States is that he hates us. While we know that Hussein possessed and used weapons of mass destruction in the past, we have no evidence that he has them today or that he's making more. But he hasn't proved that he doesn't have them, and this constitutes an urgent threat to America.

``So we must act now, because Hussein, who had nothing to do with the Sept. 11 attacks, might choose to give the WMDs that he doesn't have to Osama bin Laden, with whom he has never collaborated.

Hussein hasn't attacked us

``That's why I've decided to shift the bulk of our military resources away from catching bin Laden, who has already attacked us and vows to do so again, so that we can pursue a man who hasn't attacked us and almost certainly can't, based on the remote possibility that he'll give aid to bin Laden, who no longer is my top priority.

``My fellow Americans, the case is clear. We must liberate the Iraqi people, though we have little evidence that they want us to invade their country. We must give them a chance at democracy, though history strongly suggests that a Western attempt to impose a government in this part of the world is doomed to fail.

``Our very presence is likely to attract terrorists from all over the region and inspire new recruits, dedicated to undermining our attempts to impose a new government.

``Still, we must ensure the establishment of a new, friendly government in Baghdad that won't have a prayer of survival without our help. Before long, they'll beg us to establish a military base in Iraq -- which is our primary objective. That, in theory, will enable us to threaten every other Middle Eastern nation that dares to stand against us. Peace will reign, oil will flow and profits will accumulate. Admittedly, experts consider this a pretty far-fetched scenario, but we can't fail because God is on our side. He tells me so.

Dangerous attorney general

``But we face a long, difficult, bloody operation. More than 800 American soldiers will die and 4,000 will be maimed during the first 15 months of war. We'll honor them by saying that their sacrifices helped preserve American freedom, which in fact is threatened more by my attorney general than by Hussein.

``In addition, this war will put us at odds with France, Germany and many other of our traditional allies. But we'll work to repair those ruptured bonds soon, when we go crawling back to the world community pleading for it to bail us out of the tar pit into which we're about to leap.

``And so, my fellow Americans, I'm asking you to commit a modest $200 billion of your hard-earned money over the next two years to support this patriotic endeavor. Don't worry; your money will be in good hands, as we will hand out billions in no-bid contracts to corporations well known to people in my administration.

``And you can count on firm leadership from me until our mission is accomplished. So that you never lose faith in me, I will refuse to take responsibility for anything that goes wrong, whether it's intelligence failures, prisoner-abuse scandals or insufficient body armor for our troops.

``I'd like to tell you that America will prevail and that terrorism will be defeated. But I'm here to give an honest evaluation of our situation.

Strategy a `total disaster'

'So I am compelled to tell you that more than two dozen retired military brass and diplomats from both major parties who doubt the wisdom and sanity of my call for war will take the unprecedented step of publicly describing my strategy as a `total disaster.' They'll say that my approach will make the world less safe, alienate us from the very allies we need to help construct a global anti-terrorism alliance and undermine our national prestige and honor.

``And they'll be right. But here is the ultimate truth that so many of my un-American, unpatriotic critics overlook: You won't care. You'll still like me and support me, no matter how badly things turn out. That's because you have short memories, and you'll believe just about anything I tell you, even if it contradicts what I've told you before.

``So, in closing, let me say, God bless you, and God bless America.''

Copyright 1996-2004 Knight Ridder

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