"Turns out, we were wrong," Hadley told "Late Edition" on CNN. "But I think the point that needs to be emphasized ... allegations now that the president somehow manipulated intelligence, somehow misled the American people, are flat wrong." source
About what were Hadley and the rest of the Bush administration wrong? The answer is: Just about everything that they claim led us to war. So let's (once again) grant the administration the benefit of the doubt, and pretend for a moment that they were simply wrong, and not lying, about the intelligence that led to the invasion of Iraq.
Before I catalogue what the administration got wrong, it's important to remember how the intelligence was used: To launch a preemptive strike based on the (supposed) belief of an imminent threat.
The doctrine of preemptive strikes is not only deemed illegal by both US and international laws, but it depends entirely on the accuracy of intelligence. A preemptive strike is an intelligence-based action, since such an act is predicated not only on what has occurred (a real threat) but instead on what is believed probable (a possible threat). And that belief can only stem from intelligence – from knowing what the country about to get invaded intends to do.
Aside from the moral and diplomatic problems with preemptive strikes (the doctrine of preemptive strike is almost universally used as a pretense to aggression, and wars of aggression are the cause of warfare, are banned by US and international law and are crimes against the peace and humanity - Hitler's government was guilty of such crimes), there is the practical problem with basing an act of war on intelligence. The standard for being right is high, since the only (remote) possible justification for a preemptive strike is being right about the threat posed by not invading. The only way that a preemptive strike can ever be considered defensive is if there really was an imminent threat posed to the invading country.
With the high standard required of intelligence that leads to a preemptive strike, let's now look closely at what the administration got wrong. First, Saddam did not have an active chemical weapons program. There were no mobile labs. There were no massive stockpiles with tons of dangerous gasses and chemicals about to be used on neighboring countries or (somehow) on the United States. Second, there was not an active nuclear weapons program. Which means that there were no nuclear weapons, or mushroom clouds, on the horizon. Moreover, Iraq was not prepared or inclined, based on anything discovered after the invasion, to invade the United States. Despite administration claims, there was no imminent threat to the United States. Nothing. There was absolutely nothing that pointed to any threat to the United States, imminent or otherwise.
This should come as no surprise, given the relative strength of the United States to that of Iraq. Mongolia also does not pose an immediate threat to the United States. Nor does Norway, Brazil, Cuba or Kenya.
If the intelligence was simply "wrong" then we have another, equally deep, problem. First, the administration failed to conduct its intelligence finding organizations well. Since the Republicans controlled both the White House and the Congress, they along bare total responsibility for this failure of the nation's Intelligence Services. Second, the administration failed to apply a standard high enough to meet the requirements for intelligence leading to preemptive strike, which without good intelligence can be deemed nothing other than a war of aggression.
Being wrong is not enough, so far as intelligence leading to war is concerned. The administration, by using that intelligence to go to war, had to be right. And since they were not only wrong, but also totally wrong, this amounts to a total failure. In fact, given that there was not consensus on the accuracy of the intelligence used within the intelligence branches, it seems like the administration made a choice between the "good" intelligence and the "wrong" intelligence. And since they choose the wrong intelligence, they must bare the blame for the tragic outcomes of that mistake.
But of course, in this exercise I merely gave the administration the benefit of the doubt. But since I don't think that they are stupid enough to believe such flimsy intelligence, I don't really give them this benefit. Instead, I think that they were both wrong and lying. All I can say to this is: Scum. This administration is scum, and thank God that more and more Americans are finally figuring this out.
Cross posted Political Porn