a berlin blog
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a berlin blog |
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Tuesday, January 27, 2004 Kay's ResignationThe most interesting part of David Kay's exit interview with the New York Times is his picture of Saddam as deluded by his own scientists. According to Kay, Saddam himself wasn't even sure if he had weapons of mass destruction:"Iraqi scientists realized they could go directly to Mr. Hussein and present fanciful plans for weapons programs, and receive approval and large amounts of money. Whatever was left of an effective weapons capability, he said, was largely subsumed into corrupt money-raising schemes by scientists skilled in the arts of lying and surviving in a fevered police state." The other interesting part is that Kay insists on beating the CIA over the head. Yes, the CIA missed important nuances of Saddam's weapons program. We had no agents inside Iraq: Embarrassing. But remember that George Tenet's advice to the White House in 2002 was that Saddam posed no immediate threat. Right now you find story after story about how the CIA had poor information; not long ago it was story after story about White House pressure on the CIA to bolster the case for war. Kay's attempts to shield Bush from scandal here seem a bit lame. Also, Marc at Misanthropicity blogs about Clinton's contribution to the war on terrorism. Suppose history looks back at that 1998 "Monicagate" raid on Iraq as a successful parallel to Israel's 1981 bombing of Osirak? (Memorable line quoted and re-quoted by Instapundit before the Iraq invasion: "Israel's raid on the Osirak reactor is the only really successful nuclear nonproliferation effort to date.") What if Clinton in 1998 actually made the Iraq war unnecessary? at least for the stated reasons? posted by Michael Scott Moore | 6:00 PM | |
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