All politicians DO lie, at least some of the time.

The smart ones know when they can lie, and about what. This was best summed up by Abraham Lincoln: "You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time. You cannot fool all of the people all of the time."

Blair knew, before he ever persuaded Parliament, that sending British troops as part of the invading force would be, at the least, unpopular. He also went ahead and did it anyway.

Why?

Bush knew that he was gonna get hammered by the press and by the Democrats, and might fail of re-election over that invasion. He went ahead anyway.

Why?

Because, at the root, deposing a murderous tyrant who is also a proven user of WMDs, who *might* have some of those WMDs laying around, AND who doesn't like the United States AND has proven links to terrorists is the smart thing to do.

And, by the way, that's part of defending you and me against murderous scum like Saddam, Osama & Co.