Slate Whopper

From SLATE:

"[W]e gave him a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn't let them in. And, therefore, after a reasonable request, we decided to remove him from power, along with other nations, so as to make sure he was not a threat to the United States and our friends and allies in the region." —President Bush, in a Q and A with reporters after an Oval Office meeting with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, July 14.

"Yesterday [the U.N. Monitoring, Verification, and Inspection Commission], the [International] Atomic [Energy] Agency, and myself got information from the United States authorities that it would be prudent not to leave our staff in the [Iraq] region. I have just informed the Council that we will withdraw the UNMOVIC and Atomic Agency inspectors. …" —U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in a Q and A with reporters, announcing the reluctant withdrawal of U.N. inspectors from Iraq, as necessitated by the imminent U.S. invasion, March 17. The inspections had gone on since November 2002, when Saddam Hussein, in deference to the just-passed U.N. Resolution 1441 (and to the United States' quite visible preparations for war) allowed the U.N. inspectors back in. Saddam had kicked U.N. inspectors out--or rather (to be more precise), refused to allow them back in after they'd withdrawn in protest against Iraqi interference--in 1998.

I hope Bush never walks around the streets of my neck of the woods while I'm out driving; I have a huge blind spot for liars.