Rove Admits Errors on WMDs

Let the counterfactuals begin: Karl Rove says in his new memoir that President Bush would not have invaded Iraq, had he known that there were no WMDs. “Would the Iraq War have occurred without W.M.D.? I doubt it,” he writes. “Congress was very unlikely to have supported the use-of-force resolution without the W.M.D. threat. The Bush administration itself would probably have sought other ways to constrain Saddam, bring about regime change, and deal with Iraq’s horrendous human rights violations.” Rove strongly rejects, however, charges that Bush lied, and otherwise is an adamant defender of the administration. Rove says he was responsible for the “weak response” to charges that Bush lied. Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight will publish on Tuesday.