Tenet and Iraq

Former CIA director George Tenet was in the news last week for his new book on the build up to the invasion of Iraq. Basically no one is buying the premise of the book (although people appear to be buying the book itself, which ranks #11 on Amazon as of this writing). In the words of Wonkette, the premise can be expressed thusly: George Tenet's Book Absolves George Tenet.

Basically everything I've read about the book (although I have not and will not read the book itself) agrees with Wonkette: it is a self-serving pile of crap. Conservatives think he is rewriting history to make the Administration look bad, and just about everyone else thinks he is rewriting it to make himself look good. If he really felt so uncomfortable with the invasion, one might note, well, he was pretty much the one person in the best position to stop it.

But instead, he marched along to the invasion drumbeat when that's everyone else wanted, and, now that everyone else wants out of Iraq, he has a book saying that's what he always wanted too. Many people have seen the Medal of Freedom Bush gave Tenet as a sort of quid pro quo for (a) not blowing the whistle on the bogus WMD intelligence and (b) stepping down to take the fall for the failure to actually find any. Of course, despite all his righteous indignation, Tenet has announced that he will not be returning that particular medal, thank you very much.

As luck would have it, yours truly 'got' to hear a speech from Tenet himself a couple years back. I and several hundred of my classmates got to hear Tenet on May 17, 2003. George W. Bush had just steamrolled us into Iraq, and the invasion was already a mission accomplished. War opponents such as myself had essentially no representation around Washington, whether in government or my classrooms. When the speech concluded, I swallowed the bile building up in the back of my throat long enough to clap, but I was the only one I could see who wasn't standing. I was grateful and proud when I found out that the only people in the family section who didn't stand were in my family.

Anyway, said Tenet (emphasis added).

International politics is all about "being true to your values. About having the spine to stand up for what is right. About making choices that are not simply practical or clever, but good and beneficial."
[...]
"[W]hile we must work to make things what they can be, we must never lose sight of what they should be."
[...]
Culminating his list of 8 secrets to his success:
"Seventh: Pray. Ask God for the guidance and strength to meet the challenges of life. Put on His armor to face the forces of evil. Manifest His goodness in caring for those who are weak and in need, showing love for others each and every day.

Finally, I would say to all of you-it is a little old fashioned, but you need to hear it: Love and serve your country."

That's right. We should focus our lives on praying to defeat terrorism. But more to the point, if there's any single thing that you could now say about Tenet, it is that he had anything but the spine to stand up for what was right.

As a postscript, let me just briefly mention a couple recent developments on Iraq. One of the favored tactics of Republicans trying to keep us in Iraq is the reassurance that in just a couple months things will be better and/or Republicans will bolt. Minority Leader John Boehner was the latest to use the line this weekend, but it's not new (and probably no more accurate than it was before).

On the Democratic side, the Washington Post reported last week that Democrats were all set to abandon all their principles on Iraq. It made for a great page one headline and fit right into the typical narrative that Democrats can't stand for anything they believe in. That's why it's such a shame that the story was a sham. Oh well. Maybe we'll just have to see how the debate unfolds after all!