In fact, there was no gun at all! In news that I'm sure surprised no one, the US announced the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq — the justification for our pre-emptive invasion of that country — ended after two fruitless years. The New York Times opines in its editorial Bulletin: No W.M.D. Found:
The search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq may have been one of the greatest nonevents of the early 21st century, right up there with the failure of the world's computers to crash at the end of the last millennium. That Y2K scare at least brought us an updated Internet. Fear of the nonexistent W.M.D. brought us a war.
No matter how the Administration spins it, the ends do not justify the means. Lies, scare mongering, and faulty intelligence have no place in a democracy, regardless of whether a democratic Iraq is the ultimate outcome of the war.
This tactic has been so successful for President Bush that you can see it being applied once again, now to Social Security and its current 'crisis' (though projections show benefits will be solvent until 2042, see Democrat disputes Social Security 'crisis'). Americans, I beg of you, in the words of Chuck D: Don't believe the hype!