The Sun Journal does its readers a disservice printing Rich Lowry’s mocking attempt at character assassination against Sen. Kennedy (Jan. 23).

It is a classic “attack the messenger” effort at distraction from the real issue. That issue is whether the Bush administration lied and deceived the country in its rush to attack Iraq. We are now stuck in Iraq with U.S. troops dying daily and billions of tax dollars squandered or stuffed into the pockets of corporate sponsors of the Bush/Cheney administration.

It seems clear the Bush administration misled the public, pursuing an invasion of Iraq that was on their wish list well prior to the tragedy of Sept. 11.

There were no weapons of mass destruction ready to be launched against the U.S. at any minute. There was no nuclear weapons program. Saddam Hussein had no connection to the Sept. 11 attacks.

Blaming the failure on intelligence agencies is a diversion to avoid accountability by Bush for the lies he told to justify the war.

General Anthony Zinni, retired chief of Central Command who oversaw the Middle East, saw the same intelligence. He says “I watched the intelligence, never, not once did it say he (Saddam) has weapons of mass destruction.”

Not long ago some $50 million was wasted investigating the previous president’s lie about a fling with an intern. With our soldiers dying every day in a war that didn’t have to be, it’s time to investigate the lies coming from the Bush administration.

Harry Dwyer, Kents Hill