In Foreign Affairs

"The Bush administration's use of intelligence on Iraq did not just blur this distinction; it turned the entire model upside down. The administration used intelligence not to inform decision-making, but to justify a decision already made." - Paul Pillar

Pillar's decription of the intelligence lead up to the Bush War makes a lot of sense. He deflects those who say that the current administration wasn't alone in assuming that Saddam had WMDs - after all didn't Bill Clinton think so too ? Well,guess what ? Big Dog was totally wrong, too.

This is part of a solid evaluation of the breakdown in using intelligence to set important government policy in Foreign Affairs.It seems obvious that the current regime put the cart before the horse, or rather ignored what the horse was telling them when they chose to. Mr.Pillar, who was in charge of the CIA's analysis until last year, also informs us that the Bush Administration didn't ask for any analysis of the results of their invasion until a year after the troops were sent in.Such thoughtlessness, such carelessness hurts our troops, and certainly doesn't protect Americans against terrorists.