On April 29, the #2 man in charge of Defense, Paul Wolfowitz, when asked about military casualties in Iraq, replied "It's approximately 500, of which-I can get the exact numbers-approximately 350 are combat deaths." The number of dead soldiers at the time was 722, or 44% greater than what Wolfowitz surmised.

Many have conjectured that it was obscene for him to not know the exact figure, implying that he was simply ignorant of the fact and/or that he didn’t care enough about this sensitive topic. I would offer that there’s the chance Wolfowitz indeed knew what the exact figure was then when asked and simply chose to fudge or evade the question. Yes, he simply could’ve lied. Would it have been the first administration official to have done so?! It would be consistent with their objective to play down the horrific side of war so as to not “undermine the war effort,” i.e. don’t mention or acknowledge such awful facts so as to not alarm the public. Keep the people in the dark for the good of the war.

While this notion is absurd and wrong, it once again brings to mind what I call the “Clinton Litmus Test.” If Clinton was in office and his #2 guy at Defense uttered such a response, how would the Republicans have taken it? My guess is they would’ve been outraged, with the right-wing loony machine attacking on all fronts (Congress, media, think tanks, etc.). Taking this further, simply swap out Bush, insert Clinton, and then imagine how the Republicans would be reacting to the lies about WMD, lies about Iraq and 9-11, lies about the cost of the Medicare bill, the prisoner abuse controversy, the growing deficit, years of no job growth, etc. etc. If one is at all intellectually honest, you have to believe Clinton would be up to his eyeballs in calls for impeachment, investigations occurring left and right, the TV swamped with Republican politicians decrying his lack of leadership and his need to step down, etc.

The hypocrisy is revolting.