Due diligence is usually a financial concept, which means that there is a responsibility to verify facts before investing, to make sure that the information being presented is accurate, before a decision is made. It is an obligation for responsible folks to practice due diligence.

Bush, Cheney, Powell, Blair are very sure in many of their statements. There are no weasel words, no waffling. They led the US and Britain to invade a country pre-emptively based on people trusting their statements. For which they had no credible sources. Due diligence would have easily disclosed that, and in fact had.

Now there is a thin thread True Believers can grasp to excuse this. And a thick cable that folks who follow the situation have to realize there were serious lies told, and people dead based on those lies.

Arf (Bow, the Man said, "we not only know he has them, we know where they are.")