Intellegence Committee Report on Iraq Intellegence
On the occasion of the release of the report where the intellegence, such as it is, was adjudged by the Senate Intellegence Committee to be profoundly in error. Especially how it was used by the administration to propel the country into a predetermined war.
I read the complaints of the republican minority on the release and was moved to write a letter in response. Senator Bonds’ Press Release Here
In short I cannot believe, but of course I do, that those so-called leaders who defended and enabled “Bushs War” are now are lining up to defend their actions in the terms of denial. Having just watched the film “Judgement at Nuremburg” I am again struck by how leaders who knowingly capitulate to expediency and dont make waves, dont stand up and do their duty in the moment for which the moment calls for them to do so; I notice that when they get exposed they invariably retreat to the defensive lines of “How could we have known?” , “We didnt know, nobody did”, “There was nothing I could do”, and/or “We didnt know it would come to this, that it would work out this way”.
The movie closes with a profound, powerful retort to all this whimpering and craven justification: “The moment you first sentenced an innocent man to death it came to this.”. In this case, the case of going to war with all of its attendant horrors, the first time these men and women voted to support the administrations lies and predetermined decisions to go to war… it came to this…..
Here is a profound idea with profound consequences: Party Unity. And that being the phalanx behind which this war was foisted upon the world.
My Letter to Senator Bond on the occasion of the release of the Intellegence Committee Second Phase Report
Sir,
I just read your press release pertaining to the Intelligence Committee report. In there you accuse the Democrats of playing politics with the process, and complain about being cut out of the process.
And it just strikes me as incredibly ironic, and a bit hypocritical when I recall how the Intelligence committee was run under the Republican leadership. Among the many problems were just these things about which you are complaining.
Except, the consequences were so much more profound. You do not need a litany of the horrible consequences of the decision to go to war; it is well known. You either know it and refuse to acknowledge it. Or you don’t, in which case it seems you are too obstinate, or/and distracted by party affiliation and priorities, to acknowledge even basic facts.
Whatever truth there may be to your accusations about the process of “republicans being cut out of the process” of making this report, it is overwhelmingly counterbalanced by the profound error originally perpetrated.
In the time of the making of these decisions to go to war we needed reflection and insight, not party based rallying around a cause.
If, now, in order to get some semblance of the truth of the errors upon which this war was engaged out and into the public square, it requires that the republican’s on the Intelligence Committee be denied the ability to continue to perpetrate their obfuscation and delay then so be it. We saw how this issue was handled under the previous administration of the Intelligence Committee.
The country needed something more of the Congress than we got in those days of choosing to go to war. It was not, as those who would like to try and justify their capitulation to party discipline and the political expediencies of the moment, a requirement that we attack Iraq. These assessments from the Intelligence Committee establish once and for all that America was railroaded into this disastrous action. And that, in significant part, due to the complicity and willful ignorance on the part of the Senate and the Senate leadership at the time.
The clear and egregious complicity of Senate Republicans to capitulate to the Bush Administration on political grounds, completely ceding their constitutional role of “advise and consent” to the political imperatives of party unity did not serve this country well. Nor for that matter, ultimately the party.
I would wish that you, Senator Bond, would reflect outside the limitations of party requirements to never admit a mistake and see that maybe something seriously wrong was done here. And from that position we could all join in the assessment of facts and then the process of healing and learning.
Sincerely
Michael Beaton
