Okay, people who write letters to the NYT aren't "regular" folks. But if you lie to them, and they figure it out, do they not get really pissed off?

It's not happening as much as we might wish, but it is happening: Americans tumbling to the fact that the Bush administration's case for the invasion of Iraq was based on lies--and rising up in something like holy wrath. Of course someone who writes a letter to the editor of the New York Times isn't the "average" American targeted by Karl Rove, but you have to start somewhere.

I'm thinking primarily of the first letter here, but I've included the second one as well because, well, it's a pretty sensible letter.

September 12, 2006
The Iraq-9/11 Connection That Wasn't

To the Editor:

Re "C.I.A. Said to Find No Hussein Link to Terror Chief" (front page, Sept. 9):

Though the Senate Intelligence Committee report comes too late to save the lives of 2,600 American service members and thousands of Iraqis, Americans now see how President Bush and his administration exploited our fear after 9/11.

Instead of committing our resources and military to rout Al Qaeda, the Bush administration lied to get Congress and the public to support the invasion of Iraq.

My thinking was distorted by the horrible events of 9/11, and in March 2003 I believed the administration's rhetoric of good (United States) versus evil (Iraq) and joined pro-war demonstrations. Across the street from me stood the antiwar protesters.

Now, with another presidential election in two years, President Bush again justifies his "stay the course" policy in Iraq while solidifying the vote for another Republican president by preaching the terrors of the "axis of evil" to evoke fear in American voters.

But after reading the Senate's report, I'm crossing the street and voting for any candidate who will get us out of Iraq.

HELEN TACKETT
Fullerton, Calif., Sept. 9, 2006

•

To the Editor:

Re "With All Deliberate Foot-Dragging" (editorial, Sept. 9):

I commend your editorial about the new Senate intelligence report, but I disagree about what you say is the "big point":

"Did Mr. Bush and his aides knowingly hype the intelligence on Iraq and deliberately mislead Americans into war?''

American voters are smart enough to realize that the report inevitably leads to one of two conclusions: the Bush administration is either grossly incompetent, or that it deliberately and knowingly hyped the intelligence.

Exactly which conclusion--incompetence or "sexing up" intelligence--is irrelevant.

Unfortunately, Congress believed the administration's tall tales, financed the war and watched the administration trample our civil liberties and the Geneva Conventions.

It is to be hoped that voters will use the November Congressional elections to send a clear message: You're fired.

NATHAN P. LETTS
Ann Arbor, Mich., Sept. 9, 2006