Moving the goalposts
Did you her White House spokesman Ari Fleischer saying yesterday that even if Saddam and his sons left, that American forces would enter Iraq, though more peacefully? So first the Bush administration sets disarmament as a condition to avoid war; then it adds to this that Saddam and his blessed boys must decamp; then it announces that whatever Saddam does, it won't stop the U.S. from going in anyway.

Do you get a sense that the otherwise cowardly Iraqi foreign minister Naji Sabri (whose brother was bumped off by Saddam) was right when he suggested the UN had been manipulated by the U.S.?

Here's the Q&A:

Q: Will U.S. troops enter Iraq, no matter what, at this point? In other words, even if Saddam Hussein, in some off chance, takes this ultimatum, leaves the country with his sons, will U.S. troops, nevertheless, enter Iraq?

MR. FLEISCHER: The President addressed that last night. And the President made clear that Saddam Hussein had 48 hours to leave, beginning at 8:00 p.m. Eastern time last night. The President also made plain to the American people that if Saddam were to leave, the American forces, coalition forces would still enter Iraq, hopefully this time peacefully, because Iraqi military would not be under orders to attack or fire back. And that way Iraq could be disarmed from possession of weapons of mass destruction.

But whatever you do don't try to find the quote on www. whitehouse.org, as I did, or for that matter www.whitehouse.com, though you might want to sneak a peek.

Instead, you'll find it here, where it should be.