Once again, Josh Marshall has hit the nail on the head in his latest posting regarding the WMD scandal. David Kay seems to think the CIA owes Bush an apology; but what really does Kay know?
What we have here is a serious intelligence failure, but one that in itself would almost certainly not have led to war, at least not on the grounds of there being an imminent threat to the United States. Recognizing that it was an insufficient casus belli the White House then hyped it up with all manner of unsubstantiated mumbo-jumbo.
And for this the Intelligence Community owes the president an apology?
Just as the president did last summer when he forced an apology from George Tenet over the Niger-uranium claims and then tried to put the matter to rest without firing Tenet or asking for any kind of investigation, he now wants to pocket the blame being heaped on the Agency (because it absolves him politically) without having any sort of investigation to get to the heart of what happened.
Why? Simple. Because any truly independent investigation of how this all unfolded would expose the administration’s systematic exaggeration of what we knew about the threat Iraq posed and, almost certainly, its willful deception of the American people.
I hope Bush isn’t able to block an independent investigation. I’m certain that he’ll try; but let’s hope he fails. It is imperative that we understand why we went to war against Iraq, especially as we will be an occupying power there for many years to come.