Friday, March 28, 2003 | 4:36 a.m.
The responsibility for the magnitude of the dissent to the war lies squarely with George Walker Bush.
Had he acted presidential last fall when he became aware of the situation in Iraq, he would have met with the bipartisan leadership of the congressional committees with proper security clearance, shown them the full evidence, and issued a joint statement expressing the necessity of action. When the public sees unanimity among adversaries, it overcomes reasonable skepticism and is accepted as truth.
Instead he politicized the issue by using Saddam Hussein as his stump speech in the November election. This resulted in people, other than his partisans, finding it difficult to feel confident that the reasons for going to war are valid.
LON JAFFE
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