Posted by
On the Right on Monday, June 09, 2008 12:12:23 PM
Fred Hiatt
perused the report issued by Jay Rockefeller and the Democrats on the
Senate Intelligence Committee accusing George Bush and Dick Cheney of
deception and misdirection leading up to the war on Iraq, and finds
something missing: evidence. Not only does Rockefeller fail to
substantiate his accusations, the report itself contradicts his public
conclusions. It also sets a bar so high for action on intelligence that
its absorption could paralyze the US in confronting threats until far
too late.
. . . Rockefeller himself used in his “imminent threat” speech, waiting for
more evidence could mean waiting until an attack occurs, especially in
an era of asymmetric warfare. That would at least be an honest debate,
but Rockefeller eschews that for unsupported accusations of dishonesty
in what turns out to be a dishonest report. He certainly felt in 2002
that Bush used the right threshold after seeing the same intel that
Bush had. If we have to wait for Perry Mason-like evidence, it ensures
that the US will never take action on its intelligence until it is far,
far too late. (via the Anchoress)
No, Bush didn’t lie
But the phony "Bush lied" story line distracts from the biggest prewar
failure: the fact that so much of the intelligence upon which Bush and
Rockefeller and everyone else relied turned out to be tragically,
catastrophically wrong.
And it trivializes a double dilemma that President Bill Clinton faced before Bush and that President Obama or McCain
may well face after: when to act on a threat in the inevitable absence
of perfect intelligence and how to mobilize popular support for such
action, if deemed essential for national security, in a democracy that
will always, and rightly, be reluctant.
For the next president, it may be Iran's nuclear program, or
al-Qaeda sanctuaries in Pakistan, or, more likely, some potential
horror that today no one even imagines. When that time comes, there
will be plenty of warnings to heed from the Iraq experience, without
the need to fictionalize more.