Iraq humbles Svoboda

The Economist referred to Bush and Blair as "sincere deceivers," because they believed what they said about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction but said more than they really knew. There were two main "sincere deceivers" in the CR, Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda and ex-Defense Minister Jaroslav Tvrdík. They made WMD comments that, in hindsight, were outrageous. Fortunately for them, the WMD issue has disappeared in the CR. Only ex-Foreign Minister Jan Kavan has attempted a revival. He wants to run Svoboda out of office and is criticizing his Iraq policy. Svoboda, in turn, apparently realizes he got burned on Iraq and is backing away from his strong pro-Americanism. Svoboda's true aim still seems to be the EU commissionership, but neither he nor Kavan will apparently get what they want. A somewhat humbled Svoboda looks set to remain where he is. George W. Tony