MORONIC GENIUS:

'Irrefutable And Undeniable' (WILLIAM SAFIRE, February 6, 2003, NY Times)

Prosecutor Powell laid out on tape and in photographs hard evidence that would convince any jury. A colonel is overheard telling his superior: "We have this modified vehicle. What do we say if one of them sees it?" The general, amazed at the stupidity of failing to remove equipment purchased from a known weapons-systems company, replies: "You don't have one of those, do you?" The panicked colonel, to reassure his boss, blurts, "We evacuated everything." Concealment of evidence. Cover-up.

Another tape from a different obstructor of inspectors: "We sent you a message yesterday to clean out all of the areas. . . . Make sure there is nothing there. . . . After you have carried out what is contained in this message, destroy the message. . . ." Destruction of evidence. Cover-up.

And then, contrary to all expectations, there was an "Adlai Stevenson moment": The U.S. secretary of state displayed to the world aerial photographs showing trucks next to a bunker storing what signs say are chemical munitions. Behind the truck is what he called "a signature item: It's a decontamination vehicle in case something goes wrong."

Then he showed a photograph of the same area just as U.N. inspectors are arriving. Gone were the trucks and the telltale decontaminators. The area had been sanitized for inspection, not only showing cover-up but also demonstrating that the U.N. team has been penetrated by Iraqi wiretaps and bugs.

The particular genius of how George W. Buch has played his bureaucratic hand here is that he first shifted the burden for getting Saddam's compliance and UN co-operation to his most reluctant warrior. Now that General Powell has been able to secure neither he's not only obligated to join the war time, he's also furious enough to be willing to lead it. And because the Left and Europe mistook him for a dove--there's a wide gulf between a dove and a reluctant warrior--they built him up to the world's paragon of honest viirtue on the question of war with Saddam. So now they're left to say that he's a liar if they want to refute the evidence he laid out today.

Boy, if only George Bush had visited Europe more often maybe he wouldn't be so naive.

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 5, 2003 10:21 PM