Ritter's Rebuke

Former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter argues convincingly the reason the intelligence failed on Iraq was because the process was heavily politicized. But unlike many, he doesn't stop there; he goes on to suggest concrete steps that can be taken to prevent such a debacle happening again. It's a reminder that the excuse "everyone" got it wrong is disingenuous, because clearly "everyone" is not to blame for drumming up the false sense of imminent danger. The line doesn't work on either the foreign or domestic front. Once the CIA position was clear, it would have been difficult if not impossible for any of the world's intel agencies to counter the larger case for WMD on anything but a piecemeal basis. The CIA's budget and experience, especially regarding Saddam, made them the leaders--much the same way President Bush was the leader in the push for war. Domestically, the "group blame" argument is even weaker. As Howard dean pointed out in his recent San Antonio radio interview, "The President said last week that Congress saw the same intelligence that he did in making the decision to go to war, and that is flat out wrong." John F. Kennedy once said "Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan." That rudderless feeling on Iraq won't go away—no matter how many talking points and Victory Brochures are issued—until the President accepts ownership of not only the problem, but the process that created it.