Panel report leaves 2 rationales that Bush used for war in tatters

[liveoaktx]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/a/2004/07/10/MNG9J7JMFN1.DTL

The conclusions are not earthshaking by themselves. Though President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have not abandoned either rationale, both were already tattered after similar doubts were voiced over many months by U.S. weapons inspectors in Iraq, the commission probing the Sept. 11 attacks, CIA officials and others.

The larger question is whether voters will blame the White House for these two mistakes. Though officially agnostic on the White House role in using Iraq intelligence (that will come in a later report), the committee gives ammunition to both Bush and Democratic opponent John Kerry.

On the question of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, the bipartisan committee report absolved administration officials of pressuring CIA analysts to inflate the case against Hussein. And while making no judgment on whether the administration distorted the intelligence it was given, the committee made plain that the CIA's case against Iraq was plenty exaggerated on its own. On the issue of Iraq's relationship to al Qaeda, however, the committee's findings imply that the White House, not the CIA, is to blame for making dubious claims that there were working ties between Osama bin Laden's organization and Hussein's Iraq.

The undermining of the administration's case for war is potentially a grave threat to Bush, whose re-election prospects are closely tied to Americans' view of the merits of the Iraq war and whether it advances the fight against terrorism. For that reason, Bush has delayed a final reckoning on Iraq's forbidden weapons by naming a commission that will not report its findings until after the election. In the meantime, he continues to assert ties between al Qaeda and Iraq, and to place blame for any weapons miscalculation squarely on the CIA.

[lil-petunia]

1. good post, dac

How can the public NOT react, not when we've lost the lives of 1000 people already, and that is ignoring the massive loss of life in Iraq?

[amber dog democrat]

3. and wait until we are militarily defeated

I can't see us winning over there. Bet this will come back to haunt the GOP for 20 years.

[madrchsod]

4. we are defeated

when the us military has to throw back stones at children we have lost the purpose...

[amber dog democrat]

5. Roger, that.

I am waiting to hear the thumpa thumpa sound of the coptors lifting the last of the 'Murkins off of the roofs of administration buildings in the Green Zone.

Let em have their oil for crissakes.

[cthrumatrix]

2. do we need MORE reports to see this guy lied and mislead.... there are

books out on this guy...one from Paul O'Neill which pointed out 8.5 months before 911 they were planning regime change in Iraq....giving me a cheney-break....they LIED...people died.