Fred Barnes appears to have an Orwellian Memory Hole in his office wall. How else to explain his recent statement criticizing Barack Obama as not being strong on national security because he was opposed to the Iraq war in 2002, when, according to Barnes, "the entire world believed that Saddam Hussein in Iraq had weapons of mass destruction"? Yes, I know that Barnes is propping up the myth of Democrats being weak on national defense here, but I still find it astonishing to see an attempt at rewriting history so very soon after the actual events. No, the entire world did not believe that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, and even many of those who did think he might have some didn't find that a sufficient reason for attacking Iraq, especially at a time when the United States had its hands full in Afghanistan. Remember that other war? I guess it has disappeared down the conservative Memory Hole, too. Paul Krugman, among others, points out that debates in the media still under-sample those who opposed the Iraq war from the beginning. This biases the public debate, tipping the opinions of those who always opposed the war into that same Memory Hole. --J. Goodrich
