Bush/Cheney were wrong, and they did make huge mistakes in their understandings of the situation. Nevertheless, being wrong is not a lie. A lie is telling someone something you know to be wrong. In order for it to be a lie we would have to have evidence that they believed that Saddam had no WMD, but clearly the believed that he did: ergo they were wrong, not liars. I understand that it is politically expedient to portray all mistakes as lies, because people who are just wrong might be right about something else, but you can completely write off liars.

Back to my original point though, which is that it is better to use facts and shape discussion in your favor as part of a media campaign than it is to lie.0 Bush/Cheney actually did just that, not making things up, but using the information available to the IC to shape discussion such that in America the question was how to stop Saddam, not if he needed to be stopped.

I suspect that the reason that the Bush team went from so easily being able to control the debate to losing control so rapidly was that they bought absolutely into things we now know to be false. They really believed that we would be quickly proven right, Iraqi's would rise up to greet us in joyous throngs, and Iraq would settle into town hall meetings and happy electoral democracy about a week or two after the invasion. A willing dupe is actually much more dangerous in my view than a cunning liar who can always manipulate you. At least that way, we arrive at someones destination instead heaven only knows where.