Freyne Land

I tell ya, watching President George "WMD" Bush performing with CBS News star Katie Couric "on the ground" at a remote airbase in Iraq is literally "unbelievable."

Like shampoo, wars are marketed and sold, and America's disgraceful president is in full commercial mode these days.

"It's gonna take time," says Bush to the TV anchorwoman. "The question is whether the United States understands the consequences of failure in Iraq."

Well, we certainly understand the consequences of failure, total failure, in the White House, now don't we?

Congressman Peter Welch got an earful on Labor Day in Battery Park from a group of Vietnam War and Iraq War veterans and others who want Welchie to support a resolution that starts the process of impeaching this president. Like many other Vermonters they have been torn and outraged by the  "high crimes and misdemeanors"  of Mr. Bush. Their moral compasses demand action. "Truth" and "justice" are what America is supposed to be about, right?

"They’re threatening to expand the war to Iran," said Jimmy Leas [left]. "What more does he need to say, look, we’ve got to get this guy out of office?"

Democrat Welch [on the right holding the impeachment petitions they gave him], handled it coolly and calmly. He, like Sens. Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders, think moving down the impeachment trail at this point would derail or delay other investigations. The Bush Bunch, they say, is already in flight, and a new president will be elected in 14 months.

Two other things before I dive into "Inside Track" Tuesday.

1. Former U.S. envoy and political point-man on the ground in Baghdad Paul Bremer (a Vermont resident these days, eh?) called the NY Times to dispute President Bush's claim in a new book out today that the plan was to keep the Iraqi Army intact after invasion and conquest.

Not true!

2. And NY Times tell-it-like-it-is columnist Paul Krugman's "Snow Job in Iraq" column from yesterday. A Krugman fan am I. A taste:

In February 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell, addressing the United Nations Security Council, claimed to have proof that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. He did not, in fact, present any actual evidence, just pictures of buildings with big arrows pointing at them saying things like “Chemical Munitions Bunker.” But many people in the political and media establishments swooned: they admired Mr. Powell, and because he said it, they believed it.

Mr. Powell’s masters got the war they wanted, and it soon became apparent that none of his assertions had been true.

Until recently I assumed that the failure to find W.M.D., followed by years of false claims of progress in Iraq, would make a repeat of the snow job that sold the war impossible. But I was wrong. The administration, this time relying on Gen. David Petraeus to play the Colin Powell role, has had remarkable success creating the perception that the “surge” is succeeding, even though there’s not a shred of verifiable evidence to suggest that it is.