That’s not true, no one in the upper echelons of the administration was “tricked”. They willingly did it.
The only trickery that took place, was perpetrated against the American citizenry. And the sad thing about it is that the “perpetrators” were the citizenry’s own government officials.
I just don’t understand whenever one merely mentions the possibility of a “conspiracy”, some immediately go into coniption fits.
What do you think the whole bit about WMDs, the development of nuclear weapons and the imminent threat to America was all about? Do really think it was all an innocent “mistake”?