The commission looking into the ostensible intelligence failures that led our country to believe Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, has quietly released a 601-page report.
There was almost no media coverage of the launch of this investigation, there was no commentary on the progress of this investigation, and there has been almost no television coverage of the conclusions of this investigation.
One of their conclusions was that the harm done to American credibility over the WMD issue would take years to overcome.
There will be a lot to say about the commission report in the coming days. But what struck me was the following:
…”He went into our report in great detail,” Judge Silberman said. “It was obvious that he’d certainly read the executive summary and he’d been briefed extensively on the rest of the report.”
In my opinion, this report is a big steaming pile of cowdung. It is but one more specimen of blame-shifting by this faultless administration. But it just seems farcical that the commission members feel the need to reassure us that the President has read the executive summary.
not too sure on his comprehensive skills, but I know the bastard can count….. his bank account ; )
I don’t think his math is all that good – just look at our national deficit.
well, that’s because the deficit is ours, but you can bet his account is totally different ; )
I agree about the report as well as the sad humour of having to be reassured that the Pres. actually had some clue as to its contents.
The Price of ignoring Dissent
http://tinyurl.com/6havf
–The presidential commission assigned to investigate the intelligence failures on Iraq faulted the administration this week for not being “sufficiently open to being told that affirmative, specific evidence to support the assumption [that Saddam Hussein had WMDs] was, at best, uncertain in content or reliability.” —
Vindication on Iraq? Not exactly
http://tinyurl.com/3t6va
–you can count on the president’s spinners to focus on the commission’s conclusion that “political pressure” did not cause the intelligence community to “make or change any analytical judgments.”[…]
There is “no doubt,” the commission said, “that analysts operated in an environment shaped by intense policymaker interest in Iraq. Moreover, that analysis was shaped — and distorted — by the widely shared (and not unreasonable) assumption, based on his past conduct and non-cooperation with the United Nations, that Saddam retained WMD stockpiles and programs. This strongly held assumption contributed to a climate in which the intelligence community was too willing to accept dubious information as providing confirmation of that assumption. —
It looks like the President did not read the report since he thinks that it exonerates his White House. It does not.
No.
yah, it’s hard work having someone read for you and then tell you what you want to hear.
President Bush has many skills and it is unfair to characterize him as a loud mouth dolt. In fact he has many talents not immediately apparent. I will mention only a small sample:
He has the manual dexterity (as long as he is protected from terrorist prezels) to color between the lines.
He also has memorized “The Boy’s Own Book of Carpet Bombing, Invasions, and Resource Stealing.”
He can (almost) construct and pronounce ad hoc complex English sentences consisting of a Subject, a Verb, and a Direct Object.
He can learn from his mistakes and now knows Sweden does, indeed, have an army.
His grasp of international affairs has given him the keen insight that the British Honduras is not in the Irish Sea. This despite the fact that British Honduras is not a major source of oil.
I’m impressed. Frankly, I didn’t know that GWB had it in him to read even an executive summary–or to remember anything at all from a briefing.
If he keeps up at this rate, I’ll dig out my old Archie comics and send them to the White House–to give ole shrub something he can really sink his teeth into.