There are reports (like this one) that say representatives of Iraq tried to make a last-minute deal to avert the U.S. invasion of their country but that the U.S. "rebuffed the overture." We may hear a lot more about this even though it seems unlikely that the Iraqi offer was sufficient. What I find troubling is this sentence in the story, referring to presidential spokesguy Scott McClellan…
McClellan refused to say whether the purported Iraqi effort to avert the war was brought to President Bush's attention.
It seems to me that if any sort of offer was made, even by agents whose authority was suspect, only one response is acceptable: That it was conveyed to George W. Bush and that he made the final decision not to pursue it.
It may well be that as a State Department rep is quoted as saying in the article, "We never received any legitimate or credible opportunity to resolve the world's differences with Iraq in a peaceful manner." That is entirely possible, maybe even probable. But if I were George W. Bush, I'd be royally pissed if someone decided to bypass me in that decision. I'm the Commander-in-Chief, let's remember. I would find the guy who decided to cut me out of that decision and fire him and anyone else who knew about it. If I'm about to send American men and women to war, knowing full well that some will come back maimed or not at all. A last-minute offer may be a ruse or a bluff but I'm the guy who ought to make that call.
And maybe he did, in which case he should be taking responsibility for it, right off the bat. One of the many reasons I wasn't a fan of Mr. Reagan was this notion that somehow, if things go wrong in the White House, we can't blame the president if he didn't know about it. That should never be an acceptable excuse. I doubt Bush will wind up making it in this case but there shouldn't even be the possibility that the President of these United States was "out of the loop" on such an important matter.