I supported the action in Afghanistan. I had my reservations about the Iraq war and its justifications, before, during, and after. But more intelligent questions need to be asked.
Harry Binswanger tackles the issue of intelligence failures and Iraq. He makes some interesting points:
2. The errors or omissions, if any, in the pre-war intelligence on Iraq are as nothing compared to the errors and omissions during the whole Cold War regarding the communist bloc. We knew practically nothing. Or at least, if we did know anything it never seemed to influence either foreign policy or public opinion. The only exception I can think of was the Cuban missile crisis, when U- 2 spy-planes got photographic evidence.
And this:
6. Intelligence? Why did we need intelligence? Was it a closely guarded secret that Saddam was a dictator, a madman, a hater of America, near to the heart of terrorism? Was it unknown that Saddam had invaded Kuwait? Was it unknown that Saddam had tried to murder George W. Bush's father? Weren't we already constantly running minor sorties in Iraq--dozens of them--because Saddam kept violating the "no fly-zone" and otherwise breaking the terms imposed by our victory in the Gulf War? Did it require special espionage to uncover a possibility that Saddam would cooperate with bin Laden, as rival Mafia families do? And wasn't it on television that bin Laden issued an official endorsement of Saddam against America?Three thousand Americans died in the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In the wake of that, the only intelligent question was: which lousy Middle East pesthole-dictatorship are we going to crush first? Not: was or was not the threat from this particular statist sewer "imminent" or only "growing"?
Read the whole thing. You might like his conclusion, too, especially if you remember 1979.