Interesting speculation on whether CIA and others 'buckled' to Administration pressure to get the WMD analyses it wanted. Given the crudeness of most hard-charging politicians, it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest. Before the war, I thought that if no WMD were present in Iraq (whether they had been destroyed long before or never existed in the first place), and Saddam Hussein was too proud or stupid to announce the fact to the world community, and the U.S. invaded anyway, it would be the greatest joke in the history of the world. It looks alarmingly like this scenario has come to pass. The simple absence of reliable information prior to the start of the war always seemed the biggest hindrance to getting any kind of international consensus, and the predisposition of the Bushies to conceal and spin just makes things worse. We are lucky this time, because the war itself has done a lot of good, but it's a sign of great dangers to come. Together with Bush's tax-cutting obsession, and Saudi-cuddling inclination, it's just another reason to want to bid these guys goodbye. The Democrats are so lame, however, that we may be seriously stuck for another four years - when the first Boomers start to retire and the real chaos in government starts.
