In the first presidential debate, we saw two very important aspects of our current president. First, George W. Bush rushed to a war that was not necessary. Second, Bush will continue his general policy of obfuscation and misleading the American public.

On the first point, John Kerry made it quite clear that he would not have invaded Iraq as Bush did. Bush at one point in the debate said that he didn’t think another resolution would have forced Saddam Hussein to “divulge and disarm.” Well, Mr. President, it is impossible to divulge and disarm what you do not have.

We would have known, as we now do, that Iraq did not possess either stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction or the capability of making WMDs if the president had displayed the least bit of patience. We would have known that sanctions, isolation, no-fly zones and inspections were containing Saddam.

On the second point, Bush made it quite clear that he will continue to mislead the American public with regards to his “War on Terror” and the war in Iraq. Recall that a bipartisan commission investigating Sept. 11 found no connection between Iraq and al-Qaida.

Let me be clear, there was never any evidence to link Saddam and Osama bin Laden, Iraq and al-Qaida or Iraq and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Yet, in defense of his Iraq war policy, the president said “they attacked us.” Iraq never attacked us.

This was an intentional conflation of these two separate issues. The president and vice president have made such misleading statements that falsely try to link Iraq with the Sept. 11 attacks on numerous occasions, even after the Sept. 11 Commission published its results. If this isn’t misleading and outright lying, I don’t know what is.

Christopher Thoms