He had everything to gain politically, NUKE.
The electoral college aside, he received less votes than his opponent, making him a president ruling by technicality rather than plurality. The word 'democracy' can hardly be trotted out by one who rules without the majority of a nation voting for you.
He was the sitting president on September 11th, 2001, and the largest budget surplus in history was being plundered into the largest deficit in history, without any war yet.
His popularity was dropping rapidly 6 months after 9-11.
Going to war against anyone is good politics in such a case. It is not good statesmanship or stewardship of the nation, but cynically effective.
Americans will always rally around the president out of a sense of patriotism to their nation and troops. They trust that their president would not lie to them and has used sound judgement before commiting Americans lives.
I believe many are willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that he didn't lie about the reasons for war. However, the alternative is that he surrounded himself and heeded the advice of incompetent people, for which he is responsible for and no one else.
History is not too favorable toward Lyndon Johnson and his Vietnam legacy. And the simple lesson still not learned is that that all people will fight any perceived invader, regardless of who, or what the invader's intentions are.
You know, the administration specifically refrained from saying that 'democracy' was a goal in Iraq. There has never been any history of democracy in Iraq and the other arab leaders emphatically tried to discourage the president from invading because it would only create a quagmire and stir resentment against America. Notice how few arab troops are in Iraq? They know what they were talking about.
Leaders who rule from a minority position always try to limit those who oppose them. The Patriot Act, the banning of photos of American casualties and coffins, the refusal to acknowledge that any civilians have been killed or wounded is the stuff of pint-sized dictators, not of America.
When the first comment of the Secretary of Defense about the prison abuse is a smirking laugh that his first change is to ban cameras in military prisons, you have to ask yourself what kind of leadership this represents.
The most conservative estimates of Iraqi civilian deaths is almost 12,000. For each person killed, another 7 have been wounded for a total of over 80,000 civilians who have at least 6 friends and relatives who now hate America. That is almost 500,000 enemies in a culture of revenge... so far.
Sarah McLendon, who covered the White House for 50 years and was an equal opportunity thorn in the side to every president since Eisenhower said, "This is the worst president we've ever had." And that was before Iraq.
I have a feeling she has a handle on presidential legacies.
