Compare and Contrast

Here's the headline of The Guardian's article about the latest revelations regarding Condollezza Rice and her very Bush-like lack of curiousity regarding aluminum tubes and whether or not they were part of an Iraqi nuclear program:

Doubts raised on Saddam theory in 2001

The Bush administration knew as early as mid-2001 that a central plank of its argument about Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction was regarded by its own nuclear experts as probably untrue, it was reported yesterday...

[Nuclear] experts conveyed their doubts to the administration in an intelligence memo dated August 17 2001, but were disregarded in favour of a junior CIA analyst who championed the idea that the tubes were to be used in uranium enrichment, the report said.

Here's the headline from The San Francisco Chronicle:

Bush aide defends prewar assertions

National security adviser Condoleezza Rice defended on Sunday the emphatic statements she made in the run-up to the Iraq war that Saddam Hussein was rebuilding his nuclear weapons program...

Rice told CNN in an interview that the tubes "are only really suited for nuclear-weapons programs," adding a now-famous phrase: "We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud."

Rice, by the way, claimed Sunday that she was aware of the controversy back when this was supposedly an issue, i.e., when some folks seriously alleged that Saddam was trying to kick-start his nuclear program. Unfortunately, the record clearly indicates she chose to ignore the now proven correct assessments that Iraq's nuclear program was dead. Instead, she chose to flail away, making ominous pronouncements about mushroom clouds.

Perhaps if she was still in academia, Rice could plead "bad information," and move on. But as National Security Advisor to the President, she must be held to a higher standard.

Resignation would be the honorable thing to do. And if Bush doesn't request her resignation--well, that's yet another reason to give him a pink slip.