About that history...

The next time someone tries to pull that "everyone agreed about Saddam's WMD" scam on you, point them at this story from the LA Times:

BERLIN — The German intelligence officials responsible for one of the most important informants on Saddam Hussein's suspected weapons of mass destruction say that the Bush administration and the CIA repeatedly exaggerated his claims during the run-up to the war in Iraq.

Five senior officials from Germany's Federal Intelligence Service, or BND, said in interviews with The Times that they warned U.S. intelligence authorities that the source, an Iraqi defector code-named Curveball, never claimed to produce germ weapons and never saw anyone else do so.

According to the Germans, President Bush mischaracterized Curveball's information when he warned before the war that Iraq had at least seven mobile factories brewing biological poisons. Then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell also misstated Curveball's accounts in his prewar presentation to the United Nations on Feb. 5, 2003, the Germans said.

Curveball's German handlers for the last six years said his information was often vague, mostly secondhand and impossible to confirm.

"This was not substantial evidence," said a senior German intelligence official. "We made clear we could not verify the things he said.

"The German authorities, speaking about the case for the first time, also said that their informant suffered from emotional and mental problems. "He is not a stable, psychologically stable guy," said a BND official who supervised the case. "He is not a completely normal person," agreed a BND analyst.

You might think that taking the country into war based on the unsubstantiated claims of an unstable prisoner would be wrong. But remember, the suggestion that anyone in the administration intentionally misled the country about Iraq is "irresponsible" and "reprehensible."

You might also be accused of rewriting history if you read this BBC article from February 2003:

France, Germany and Russia have released an unprecedented joint declaration on the Iraq crisis, demanding more weapons inspectors and more technical assistance for them. ...

"Nothing today justifies a war," Mr Chirac told a joint news conference with Mr Putin. "This region really does not need another war."

He said France did not have "undisputed proof" that Iraq still held weapons of mass destruction.

"All possibilities of the resolution must be explored and that still leaves a lot of room for manoeuvre to achieve the goal of eliminating any weapons of mass destruction that Iraq may possess," Mr Chirac said.

Mr Putin told journalists that Russia and France insisted on the need for a policy aimed at a diplomatic outcome to the crisis.

"We believe that use of force may lead to an unpredictable escalation in tension," he said.

Hmm, unpredictable escalation in tension. Imagine that.