One of the reasons we're so beholden to Israel is that Israel does not suck at HUMINT. We get much of our HUMINT from them. It should surprise no one that often, the HUMINT we get from Israel tends to benefit Israel... and Israel is a much stronger country with Iraq as a vassal state. The invasion of Iraq has many similarities with Operation Ajax, for that matter, in which the British manipulated the United States into overthrowing Mossadegh because he nationalized British petroleum interests. For that matter, the British drew us into WWI by showing us that Germany was trying to ally itself with Mexico: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimmermann_Telegram Think of America as the "big, dumb, lovable jock" of the high school. He's not so good at figuring out stuff on his own, but he presumes that most people like him and he's normally pretty happy-go-lucky. Every now and then, somebody trips him. He looks around, pissed off, wondering who would do such a thing. Anybody who can whisper "Iraq did it" in his ear is likely to have an enemy wiped out without much effort on his part. The Neocons are not blameless in this. The problem does not, however, lie in "they saw what they wanted to believe". It lies in "they can never really trust what they see because we suck at it."
They use the US as their puppet. Here in the US we think it's the other way around but it's not. The blind unwavering support we give Israel should infuriate our citizenry, but it doesn't. Nobody cares. I think it has something to do with Jesus and a holy land or something... The big, dumb, lovable jock analogy rings true for a bit but even the jock eventually realizes that the same person keeps whispering the same things in his ear. Theoden King eventually wakes up... and when he does, he's pissed. I think Theoden (US) might just come out of it's slumber as it's citizenry wakes up and holds the King accountable. too many competing metaphors in there? probably.