DANCE OF THE WMD FAIRIES PART 2

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

Kay: 'We were almost all wrong' about Iraq arms

Republicans say the nation's intelligence agencies were the problem. Democrats point to the White House, questioning possible pressure put on intelligence analysts and noting Vice President Dick Cheney's continued assertions that weapons of mass destruction existed.

Asked at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing if an independent investigation was warranted, Kay replied that he believed an outside inquiry would give Congress and the public more confidence. Democrats are sure to make use of that point as they call for more and broader inquiries.

And

Democrats are using many of the administration's past statements on the Iraqi weapons program to criticize the decision to wage a pre-emptive war. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., quoted from more than a half dozen statements from Bush and his Cabinet members asserting the existence of Saddam's weapons programs.

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And from a London Guardian editorial via J. Orlin Grabbe:

Last of the believers

Everyone gets it already - there were no weapons of mass destruction; everyone, that is, but the British government.

Like the Japanese soldier of cliche, still shooting from his cave because no one has told him the war is over, Tony Blair and faithful lieutenant Jack Straw are sticking to the cause long after their commanders have surrendered. Their tenacity in the face of all the evidence is almost touching. Blair still says he has "absolutely no doubt". Straw wobbles a bit on the radio, admitting it's "disappointing" that no weapons have yet been found, but he keeps the faith. Washington may have abandoned the pre-war script, but their loyal retainers in London are staying true. They are like a pair of old Communist cadres defending some appalling Stalinist action, unaware that the party line from Moscow haschanged.

And

So why does Blair not just come clean and admit he got it wrong? . . . For one thing, Tony Blair would have to confess that he has poorer judgment of military and international affairs than the majority of the British public, who told pollsters for months that they did not consider Saddam an immediate threat. He would have to concede that every one of those demonstrators who filled central London last February had a better grasp of Iraqi's military weight than he did. If it stuck in his craw to accept that he had been wrong to predict that Ken Livingstone would be a "disaster" for London, imagine how he would face the entire anti-war movement and say, out loud: "When it came to weapons of mass destruction, you were right and I was wrong."

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