Abstract

Bush's Credibility Gap

[U.S. President George W.] Bush's credibility has become an issue of late. He has not been able to explain his prewar assertions about Iraq's weapons (or, similarly, his phony budget projections designed to hide massive deficits). And that credibility gap undermines US security. United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan recently noted that the missing WMDs have led to international skepticism concerning US intelligence, and that may make it harder for Washington--or the UN--to win support for necessary actions in the future. Testifying in Congress, Margaret Tutwiler, Under Secretary of state for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, said that America's image abroad has become so tarnished in recent years that "it will take us many years of hard, focused work" to refurbish it. But Bush isn't engaging in that sort of hard work. He refuses to demand accountability at the CIA or to acknowledge that he and his aides turned flawed intelligence into disinformation. Let's not politicize all this, Bush defenders cry. But what can be a more important issue in the 2004 election than whether the incumbent misled the nation into war? The WMD scandal illuminates what is most wrong with the Bush Administration: dishonesty, recklessness, arrogance and extremism.