Intelligence all but irrelevant in Iraq aggression decision (newsflash!)

So now a high-ranking CIA veteran, Paul Pillar, accused the Bush administration of publicly misusing intelligence "to justify decisions that had already been made."

When intelligence analysts refused to give the answers that the administration wanted to hear, they were accused of "trying to sabotage the president's policies."

Since the weapons of mass destruction rationale (the primary stated basis for the Iraq aggression) was discredited, the administration has consisently shift blame the intelligence community. 'It's not our fault,' they sniff. 'Blame the spooks!'

Pillar rubbishes this passing of the buck.

"What is most remarkable about prewar U.S. intelligence on Iraq is not that it got things wrong and thereby misled policymakers; it is that it played so small a role in one of the most important U.S. policy decisions in decades," he said.

Pillar will certainly be attacked for this by people who think any critic of the administration should remain quiet. But fortunately Pillar remembered that he swore an oath of loyalty to the Constitution, not to the man who temporarily lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.