Steve Chapman: Shifting the blame for the debacle in the Iraq war

[Martin Eden]

by Steve Chapman

Shifting the blame for the debacle in the Iraq war

Published July 18, 2004

The Senate Intelligence Committee has accused the U.S. intelligence community of gross errors in the information that justified the invasion of Iraq, and how do diehard supporters of the war take the news? They're thrilled.

In their view, this exonerates President Bush of the charge that he stretched the truth in his zeal for war. "A few apologies would seem to be in order," crowed an editorial in The Wall Street Journal, arguing that "this unanimous study" found the claims that Bush misled Americans "are without merit." Bush said he welcomed the assessment of "where the intelligence-gathering services went short"--deftly shifting the blame away from himself.
<snip>

The atmosphere didn't encourage independent thinking. When one analyst raised doubts about an Iraqi defector code-named Curve Ball, whose data was used in Secretary of State Colin Powell's address to the UN Security Council, his boss told him to get real. "Let's keep in mind that this war's going to happen regardless of what Curve Ball did or didn't say, and that the powers-that-be probably aren't terribly interested in whether Curve Ball knows what he's talking about," said the deputy chief of the CIA's task force on Iraq, in a memo uncovered by the committee.

In the end, the powers-that-be got what they wanted. But focusing on whether the president was the cause of bad intelligence or its victim misses the central facts about this whole mess: The administration insisted on going to war against a regime that had been safely contained, and then blundered into a nightmare that promises to claim American lives for years to come.

For all that, as The Wall Street Journal might put it, some apologies would seem to be in order.
Read more:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-0407180435jul18,1,6613331.column

[Trajan]

1. Chapman is a Libertarian Columnist ...

He was a regular in the OC Register who often criticised the 'War on Drugs' ....

He is no liberal Democrat ... This article is bad news for the GOP, and speaks volumes of the problems the RNC will have with their libertarian coalition this time around ...

Meanwhile: Bush is courting his base ....

[Cha]

2. Good! I'm happy this is out there in The Chicago Tribune..

I had no idea(but I should know)that the wall street journal was asking for an "apology" for bush when just the opposite is warranted.

[cal04]

3. Not CIA's fault

By Eric S. Margolis

Having presided over the two worst intelligence disasters since Pearl Harbour - 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq - the Bush administration and its apologists are now whining, 'OK, we were wrong about Iraq's weapons and supposed threat, but so was everybody else. Besides, it was all CIA's fault.' No way. The Iraq weapons fiasco was absolutely not caused by an 'intelligence failure,' as the White House and the recent Senate whitewash claimed.

US national security and CIA were corrupted and blinded at the top by extremist ideology, cowardice, and careerism. Nor was everyone wrong about Iraq. Scores of Mideast professionals, this writer included, insisted from Day 1 that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, posed no threat to the US, and had no link to Al Qaeda. We were ignored, or dismissed as traitors or cranks.

Many veteran CIA officers dismissed alarmist claims about Iraq as politically-motivated propaganda. The US state department, US air force, and French intelligence challenged claims the Iraq had threatening offensive weapons systems. Many senior Pentagon military officers opposed invading Iraq. But the word went out: If you value your job and pension, do not, repeat, do not contradict the boss.


CIA director George Tenet, a careerist bureaucrat, not an intelligence professional, undermined his agency's ethics by eagerly pandering to all of Bush and Cheney's prejudices - over his subordinate's protests. Hand-licking took precedence over professionalism. Those with dissenting views were ignored, shunted aside, or fired.


http://www.dawn.com/2004/07/18/op.htm#3

[Cha]

4. Totally dispicalble...Eric Margolis has it exactly right.

And he's a republican, too..or so I heard.

[dennis4868]

5. The US state department, US air force......

The US state department, US air force, and French intelligence challenged claims the Iraq had threatening offensive weapons systems.

In addition, the DIA, INR, and CIA's memo in Feb. of 2003 all challenged the claims of Bush and his thugs as well!

[ixion]

6. apologies? How about tribunals? How about war crimes charges?

It would seem that being at the helm of a military that slaughtered thousands of innocent civillians is not as bad as lying about having consensual sex. :eyes:

[Miss Authoritiva]

7. As Tim Dunlop says, it's "the war that started itself."

Great post up at "The Road to Surfdom"

The War That Started Itself

"The idea that false, incorrect or phoney intelligence is to blame for the all the ills that ail Iraq, the US occupation and the post-war, post-Saddam situation is rapidly becoming the excuse-of-choice for the Bush adminsitration and their coalition partners."

<snip>

"Saying 'we just relied on bad intelligence' may be true but it's not an excuse. It was a decision....The bottom line is, the fact that that intelligence was faulty doesn't relieve anyone of any responsibility for the decisions they took."

MORE


http://www.roadtosurfdom.com/surfdomarchives/002555.php

[benfranklin1776]

8. Kick

:kick:

[Raster]

9. yessireee, we got a diaper full here...

gee-dubya and $hrubco LIED. Period. Plain and simple. gee-dubya wouldn't know the truth if it bit him in the ass. He's NEVER had to face the truth.

[Disturbed]

10. The Office of Special Plans

Type that into a search engine.