Originally Posted by djplong

I believe that he heard what he wanted to hear. I believe that influenced his opinion of any dissenting opinions.

I also believe that a strong factor in believing that there were WMDs in Iraq was the fact that we SOLD the stuff to Saddam during the Iran/Iraq war.

Do I believe that he *purposefully* lied at the very beginning? No.

Do I believe that wanting revenge for the attempt on his father's life influenced his thinking? Yes - how could it not?

Do I believe that he was surrounded by people who were looking for an excuse to go into Iraq - even spreading around ideas that Saddam was connected with 9/11? Yes.

At time, people were calling Bush stupid and moronic. I don't care what you think about someone's policies, but you can't be stupid and learn to fly jets. You can be *incompetent* at other things, but room-temperature-IQs don't fly military jets.