"Less Safe and More Vulnerable To Terrorists"

London’s “Economist” (subscription only) which supported the war in Iraq, now has this to say in its lead editorial:

“To understand, however, is not to forgive. For hyped-up salesmanship brings clear consequences: customers become even more skeptical, once they find they have been gulled. The basic claim made by Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair is true: we do live in dangerous times, in which the threat of catastrophic attack by WMD -armed terrorists is real. But the next time politicians call for military action to deal with such threats, on the basis of intelligence warnings, even more people will refuse to believe them. Well-intentioned or not, such salesmanship has made us all less safe, and more vulnerable to terrorists.”

That’s pretty clear – “less safe.” And to drive the point home:

“Mr. Bush still needs to bear the responsibility for having made things harder and more dangerous in several ways. One is the dishonesty already outlined, and its consequence for public trust. Another is his failure to deal with the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison by demanding accountability at a senior level, preferably by requiring the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld, his defense secretary. A third is the negligent lack of preparation and initial resource-provision for rebuilding Iraq.”

That sums it up pretty well.