Why is everybody pretending that President Bush was duped by the CIA into invading Iraq? Does anyone seriously believe that CIA Director George Tenet was some kind of Svengali or Rasputin? Tenet would have had to have been twice as good as either of them to budge the stubborn Bush.

Bush still hasn’t accepted the congressional report that there were no significant contacts between bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. Bush hasn’t accepted yet that there were no Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. He hasn’t accepted the pre-war intelligence report that Saddam was no threat unless attacked. Did Tenet wrap Bush around his little finger? Pasture pies. People with the stature of Colin Powell, Gen. Schwarzkopf and Ambassador Wilson all tried to influence Bush. We’ve yet to see any effect.

U.S. weapons inspector David Kay revealed something in an interview July 12 with Wolf Blitzer. Prior to the war, another CIA agent was told not to bother sending a report that painted Ahmed Chalabi as a con man. The reason given was that Bush had already made his mind up to go to war. We know that was the case from other whistleblowers, such as Paul O’Neill. The treasury secretary disclosed that Bush was obsessed with war with Iraq from his first cabinet meeting.

Tenet and the CIA are scapegoats. If we’re going to get rid of this gauntlet of bumbling missteps, we’ll have to let Bush have his manned trip to Mars. Just don’t let him navigate.

Tom Bulger, Wilton

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