Is Iraq going to fall?

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by PaulS

Ok, so it was the biggest intelligence failure of the 21st century. Their colossal incompetence lead to how many soldiers (4,500??) deatlhs and 000s of billions of $ wasted.


Clinton saw only what was given to her. The admin. ignored any evidence that didn't conform to what they wanted it to show (curveball). The admin. even planted a story w/the NY Times about the alum. tubes then had Powell/Cheney/Rice/Rumsfield go on the Sunday morning talk shows and they used that Times story to make the arguement that Iraq was using them for nuclear weapons.

Is planting a story then using that story to justify something an intellegence failure or a deliberate act and does that then rise to a level for impeachment?

Paul, it's easy to say, after the fact, that it was incompetent to conclude they had WMDs. But did you witness a presentation of the available evidence? I did. Based on the available evidence, it was amazing to me that anyone could conclude there weren't WMDs.

Saddam signed a treaty, ending the first Gulf War, to give weapons inspectors complete access. He repeatedly kicked them out. That alone, is pretty compelling evidence that he's hiding something.

If based on that evidence, Bush concluded there were no WMDs, and it turned out there were? I bet we'd all be a lot more critical.

Intelligence, unfortunately, is not an exact science. You can't always find something the size of a refrigerator in a place the size of California.

Anyway, if it shows "colossal incompetence" to conclude there were WMDs, that applies to everyone who reached that conclusion, including Hilary. So can we all assume you wouldn't vote for her, since according to you she's a colossal incompetent? I'd love to hear the answer to that...