"The 'powerful odor of mendacity' (to borrow Tennessee Williams' phrase) hung over George Bush's primetime virtual declaration of war Monday night," TomPaine.com commentator Doug Ireland writes. "When Bush proclaimed that 'The Iraq regime continues to possess [3] and conceal [4] some of the most
lethal weapons [5] ever devised,' that was a lie. ... Bush asserted that Iraq 'has aided, trained, and harbored terrorists, including operatives of Al Qaeda [6].' The last part of that was a lie. ... By asserting the United States' right to invade whomever it likes whenever it likes, Bush's speech brought the world to the most dangerous moment in its history since the Cuban missile crisis of 1962."