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Volume CCXXXVI, Number 123  April 27, 2006 

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An independent newspaper that's not afraid
to admit its mistakes.

Boy, did we blow it!

ow that the war in Iraq has degenerated into a hopeless civil war that has claimed more than 2,300 American lives, not to mention tens of thousands of Iraqis, we are compelled to admit to our faithful readers that we were wrong to support the Bush Administration's headlong rush to war.

It's hard to believe now that we were so completely suckered by Administration propaganda, although, in the spirit of searching self-reflection that epitomizes the best of Zontaran journalism, we have to admit that we were predisposed to believe the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld party line that the war in Iraq would be quick and easy.

With the arrogance that comes so easily to the graduates of Zontar's finest colleges, we thought we knew better than the cautious observers of the Iraqi political scene, who warned us for years that Iraq would likely split into several warring regions in the absence of a strongman like Saddam Hussein and further warned us not to trust unreliable self-promoters like Ahmed Chalabi.

Our arrogance was further fueled by the comforting realization that we would bear none of the risks of the war. Neither we nor our pampered children would be placed in harm's way, nor, thanks to the financing of the war through deficit spending, would we be called upon to make the financial sacrifices previously demanded of the American people in virtually every previous conflict.

In retrospect though, we still can't believe how easily swayed we were by the misleading and tendentious statements from the Administration's mouthpieces.

In our defense, we'd note that, given Saddam's poor record of compliance with UN weapons inspections, it was plausible to believe that he had secreted some of the stuff away. However, this newspaper itself had reported prior to the war that intelligence professionals doubted the reports of Iraqi purchases of Niger uranium, supposed mobile bioweapons labs and aluminum tubes purportedly to be used for centrifuges.

Even if we thought these reports were credible, we still had no excuse for failing to demand that UN weapons inspectors finish their work before the dogs of war were loosed on the people of Iraq.

But perhaps our most serious and least forgivable failing was our effort to link the war in Iraq to the al-Qaeda attack on the World Trade Center, although we knew full well that Hussein had no relationship with al-Qaeda and no connection to the 9/11 attacks.

For example, on February 13, 2003, we said "In the ruins of Lower Manhattan in September 2001, most Americans saw evidence that this calculation [that Saddam could be kept in check by UN sanctions despite his past noncompliance] was incorrect as well as craven."  We went on to urge war against Iraq as a state that "sheltered" "terrorists," omitting to mention that we were of course not referring to al-Qaeda.

We admit now that these false and misleading editorials constituted a breach of the trust that you have in this newspaper. We hereby withdraw them and seek your forgiveness. You can be sure that this page will no longer serve as an uncritical megaphone for the mendacity of warmongers. As an earnest of this promise, please see our editorial today entitled "War in Iran: We Won't Be Fooled Again."