Heads He Wins, Tails We Lose.

The Senate Intelligence Committee finally released their report on the Bush administration's "intelligence failures" leading to the Iraq war. Why did it take so long? Because the Senate Republicans stonewalled every step of the way, as usual. The report doesn't shed a whole lot of new light on the matter; it simply verifies what most of us on the left have been saying for a long time.

From Senate Intelligence Committee chairman John D. Rockefeller's press release:

“Before taking the country to war, this Administration owed it to the American people to give them a 100 percent accurate picture of the threat we faced. Unfortunately, our Committee has concluded that the Administration made significant claims that were not supported by the intelligence,” Rockefeller said. “In making ethe case for war, the Administration repeatedly presented intelligence as fact when in reality it was unsubstantiated, contradicted, or even non-existent. As a result, the American people were led to believe that the threat from Iraq was much greater than actually existed.”

“It is my belief that the Bush Administration was fixated on Iraq, and used the 9/11 attacks by al Qa’ida as justification for overthrowing Saddam Hussein. To accomplish this, top Administration officials made repeated statements that falsely linked Iraq and al Qa’ida as a single threat and insinuated that Iraq played a role in 9/11. Sadly, the Bush Administration led th nation into war under false pretenses.

“There is no question we all relied on flawed intelligence. But, there is a fundamental difference between relying on incorrect intelligence and deliberately painting a picture to the American people that you know is not fully accurate."

You can read the entire report here.

The New York Times, in an editorial on the 6th, states:

Over all, the report makes it clear that top officials, especially Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, knew they were not giving a full and honest account of their justifications for going to war.

And:

According to the Senate report, there was no evidence that Mr. Hussein intended to use weapons of mass destruction against anyone, and the intelligence community never said there was.

The Times ends their editorial with this:

We cannot say with certainty whether Mr. Bush lied about Iraq. But when the president withholds vital information from the public — or leads them to believe things that he knows are not true — to justify the invasion of another country, that is bad enough.

The defense offered by Bush apologists has been that the intelligence was bad, therefore the Bush administration is not to blame. So let me ask this: which is worse, a president who would deliberately mislead us into a war, or a president who is so [dim, slow, oblivious, out of the loop] that he doesn't know to ask the questions that will determine how much of a threat we are facing?

Bonus question: Given all that we know about the Iraq intelligence failure/manipulation, how are we supposed to trust what they say about Iran? Or any country, for that matter?
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EDIT: For an opposing view of the report, check out According To Nikki's take.