Very quickly ...

I have much more to say when I'm off Monday, but I'll address this before my Thai food gets here:

I do not deny, now or in the past, that many people believed he had this capacity (chem & bio weapons ), including Tony Blair, the majority of the US Congress, the entire Cabinet, and the greater portion of the NATO leadership... we all shared the same intelligence material.

Then I have won this micro-issue argument - there was indeed a consensus that Saddam had WMD's in the form of chem & bio weapons which is to say there was a consensus on WMD's. And the "yellow cake" matter, however unagreed upon, did not constitute a break in that overall agreement. You just said so yourself.

****

However, I STILL maintain that as long as there was one grain of doubt that he actually had this capability... we were obligated to find the PROOF ....


This is a fantastically naive and idealistic view of how the Intel community works. They very rarely deal in iron clad guarantees or proof positive. They give assessments and leave it to those dully elected to make an executive decision. To say that we should set aside the certainty level on chem/bio weapons of mass destruction - of which we both now acknowledge existed a consensus - until we have the type of "PROOF" that would eliminate even ONE GRAIN OF DOUBT about his nuclear capabilities is a ridiculous request to make of the Intel community in my opinion, to say the least. Would that be your executive order to the CIA in a Titus administration? That you want no assessments given in matters of war and peace without every last grain of doubt removed? Well, even if you were to issue such a nonsensical demand I would suppose that as CIC the phrase "it's a slam dunk" from the head of the CIA (& as much as confirmed by the DIA) would suffice -and that's exactly what Tenet told Bush. His responsibility at that point was clear, and he acted responsibly.

Like I said, I have more things to say that move this football further down the field Monday when I'm off (got out a little early tonight but I'm off to eat & sleep). Talk later.