Time magazine is leading the charge, spured on by the Economist and a nicely balanced story in the Washington Post. That’s good. At the same time, however, Google News is reporting over 1300 articles about mideast peace, and only 22 about the lack of WMDs. In news more widely covered, Russia wants UN inspectors to be doing the inspecting. Maybe they’re worried about the US…um…overstating its findings?

Here is a quote from the excellent Time story:

But if the Bush team overreached, one nagging question is, Why? A defense expert who has spent 20 years watching Republicans argue about foreign policy from the inside believes the hard-liners’ agenda isn’t about Iraq or even oil. It’s simply that the most zealous defenders of America’s role in the world are congenitally disposed to overreact to every threat — which leads them to read too much into the intelligence. “They came in with a world view, and they looked for things to fit into it,” says Lawrence Korb, who served in the Reagan Pentagon and now works at the Council on Foreign Relations. “If you hadn’t had 9/11, they would be doing the same things to China.”

Interesting, because it implies less ill-will then misdirected patriotism. Seen in that light, I am less upset about our leaders, even while strongly disagreeing with them. They still lie and spin to an enormous degree and generally get away with it, but I always thought it was because they are evil. Maybe they’re more psychotic then anything else.