Why Bush escaped an Iraq row [View All]

[emad]

Despite numerous White House allegations in the run up to the Iraq war, which turned out to be wrong, Bush has escaped the kind of row that Blair has landed himself in, in the UK, writes the BBC's Tom Carver:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3109538.stm

Admittedly, Bush's spin machine has not crumbled the way that Blair's has, and he has not lost as many key ministerial personnel during the last 12 months as Blair. However, the American public have not responded as strongly to the glaringly obvious lack of WMDs which have underpinned the entire raison d'etre of the war, nor the lack of evidence of nuclear weapons capability

Bush's own spin machine rapidly changed tack after the death of Dr Kelly and focused on domestic issues to regain electioneering momentum.

Maybe this is why Bush has backed off from a proposed state visit to the UK, knowing it would do his image and 2004 campaign no good: the UK electorate despises Bush and sees him as a sort of oil industry pimp, soliciting on behalf of Bush 1.