The reason to invade Iraq, as it was put forth by the administration, was imminent threat of attack from Iraq using WMD that the administration knew were there -- they said so -- and in some cases they gave locations. People who were not persuaded by the story about the Saddam-al Qaeda connection were concerned about WMD. Without that justification, the invasion might never have occurred.

Rumsfeld wasn't the only one to make statements that these WMD existed, and that they knew it because they knew were the WMDs were. He was, however, the one who got caught most recently. To ask whether the nation was taken to war on false pretenses is a legitimate question. It's obvious now that the WMD didn't exist. The only thing that remains is to figure out whether the administration always knew this and lied, or whether they were deceived by career civil servants for some as yet unexplained reason. Neither option is attractive.

If the people were lied to to start the war, all the connect-the-terrorist-dots pictures in the world will not erase that.