Despite the growing embarrassment he faces involving the pre-war Iraq intelligence, US President George W. Bush is putting feathers in his own cap. 

In a speech delivered last Wednesday at an exhibit of the Library of Congress honoring British wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Bush drew parallels between the US-led war in Iraq and the war against terrorism with Churchill's struggle against fascism during World War II.

"In some ways, our current struggles or challenges are similar to those Churchill knew," Bush said. "We are the heirs of the tradition of liberty, defenders of the freedom, the conscience and dignity of every person."

The president also praised current British Prime Minister Tony Blair as a leader in Churchill's mold.

"In his determination to do the right thing, and not the easy thing, I see the spirit of Churchill in Tony Blair," Bush said.

As the man who led the United States into the war in Iraq, Bush certainly must find reasons to praise his decisions.

Given the embarrassing situation on the intelligence issue, it is understandable that he would go to great pains to defend Blair, who has been his staunchest and most intimate backer on the international stage.

But in doing so, Bush once again lied to his people and the world, just as he did before the war.

To enlist support from other countries and justify a war for removing former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Bush said Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) posed an imminent threat to the United States and the world.

But the "Iraq threat" was then proven deliberately exaggerated. David Kay, the chief US weapons hunter in Iraq, last week said Iraq had no WMD at the time of the US-led invasion. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director George Tenet's said on Thursday that analysts had never claimed Iraq posed an imminent threat.

It is also ridiculous that Bush compared the threat posed by Saddam's regime to the one posed by the World War II fascist camp, spearheaded by Germany, Italy and Japan, three industrially developed countries with great ambitions for outside aggression at that time.

Saddam's regime, with few allies in the international community and with weakened economic and military structures due to longstanding international sanctions, was far from posing the same threat to the United States or the world that the fascists did from 1939-45.

The war against fascism supported by Churchill was a just cause supported by all peace-loving countries and people in the world.

But the war against Iraq was launched amid widespread international opposition and under unconvincing excuses.

Bush should have known all these points.

What the international community really wants now is an objective and intelligent answer from Bush on why America went to war in Iraq -- not unconvincing explanations and preposterous historical comparisons.

(China Daily February 9, 2004)