LONDON -- Politicians always exaggerate, or at least embroider the facts. Like lawyers they have a case to make and an audience to persuade. So they emphasize the strongest points in their argument and slide over the weaker ones.
Usually this works out happily for them. But in the situation now gripping the British government and its leader, Prime Minister Tony Blair, a bit of exaggeration, or embroidery about the reasons for invading Iraq, has led to tragedy and possibly to disaster.
The tale is a tangled one and has yet to unravel fully. It begins with Blair's honorable and creditable attempt to persuade the British public of the need to support the U.S.-led attack on Iraq and to give reasons why the world would be a much better place without Saddam Hussein and his murderous gang.