JohnHays.net

CIA told to explain lapses in Iraq data

According to an article by the AP in the Washington Times, David Kay says:

"I don't think they exist," David Kay said yesterday. "The fact that we found so far the weapons do not exist, we've got to deal with that difference and understand why."

Mr. Kay's remarks on National Public Radio reignited criticism from Democrats, who ignored his cautions that the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was "not a political issue."

"It's an issue of the capabilities of one's intelligence service to collect valid, truthful information," Mr. Kay said.

Asked whether President Bush owed the nation an explanation for the gap between his warnings on banned weapons in Iraq and Mr. Kay's findings, the inspector said: "I actually think the intelligence community owes the president, rather than the president owing the American people."

I don't think the question of whether WMD were found or not concerns most Americans. While the Democrats may think it's a worthwhile issue to pursue, I think most Americans would agree that Bush did not deliberately lie about WMD.

David Kay tends to blame the intelligence community and its analysis that there were WMD, and this is probably accurate, but "intelligence" is not a perfect science and "analysis of raw data" is definitely not an exact science. I think most Americans realize this.

Many pundits who supported the war in Iraq, which I also supported, tend to say the war was basically about Iraq violating U. N. resolutions over and over. Many pundits who didn't support the war bring up the WMD position as Bush's reason for war.

The one thing we do know for sure is that the plans for actions after the initial combat with Iraq's military were less than perfect. We also found out our armed forces were undermanned and our reserve components and the administrative departments of our reserve components were not quite ready for extended deployments.

One of the most disgraceful results of the deployment of so many of our reserve components was the lack of enforcement of laws that protect our reserve servicemembers, especially laws designed to protect their jobs upon their return from duty abroad. This war with Iraq also showed that the Department of Labor is wandering around out in right field trying to figure out where the ball was hit. If the Department of Labor doesn't realize we are in a war, isn't it the President's job to sort of notify the Secretary of Labor, you know, maybe send the Secretary a memo saying something like, "Wake up, wake up, we are sort of in a war. When our reservists return could you sort of make sure at least a few labor laws are being adhered to."

Posted by John at January 26, 2004 10:03 PM | TrackBack