False Statements

I'm in the middle of trying to write an article on what the state can actually know and what it does when it runs policies based on the assumption that it can acquire information it actually can't acquire (such as asylum systems). Which makes me well disposed towards this post on Crooked Timber, on the WMD line taken before the invasion of Iraq.

I like the way the debate swings partly towards whether this is a distinction, in terms of responsibility, to be drawn between false beliefs and knowing deceptions. I suspect that there is, but that the US/British line on the matter is interesting not for highlighting the difference but for the manner in which governments seem so good at blurring the line.