The National Intelligence Estimate – the “Ulysses” of our Time

First Clinton and Edwards. Now McCain and Brownback. Did ANYONE in the Senate read the NIE before voting to invade Iraq? Amazing. And depressing.

Update: Reader Hoplite promises, “If Carnie himself has read either Ulysses or the NIE, I’d have a heart attack.” Hoplite: Better call 911. I read the first with relish, some time ago, over plates of beasts and fowl. The other I read, too, absent the relish, and only the declassified portions.

Re the good point made by other commenters that the NIE came too late, and was too flawed, to have unbaked the cake: I wholeheartedly agree. Nevertheless, the fact that so many key senators didn’t even bother to read it before (or after) casting such an important vote is, to me, depressing.

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