Remember when prior to us invading Iraq, President Bush stood in front of the American people and told us that "that toppling Saddam could lead to a dangerous period of internal violence and provide a boost to terrorists?"
You don't?
Perhaps that's because you have a better memory than say, the entire Justice department.
He didn't say it. Neither did his surrogates who told us "no more than six months," "greeted as liberators," or flowers, flowers, flowers...et al.
But today, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence will release selected portions of pre-war intelligence in which the CIA warned the administration of the risk and consequences of a conflict in the Middle East. In fact, the CIA did tell the president that "toppling Saddam could lead to a dangerous period of internal violence and provide a boost to terrorists."
And even with that information, this administration still failed to prepare for "a dangerous period of internal violence and provide a boost to terrorists."
Perhaps their plan was to allow for a "boost for terrorists" by drawing them into Iraq. Wonder how the Iraqi people with or without purple fingers would feel about President Bush painting a bullseye on their butts?
If this was truly "intelligence that everyone saw," then those who voted to give this president authorization to go into Iraq, Democratic or Republican, need to tell us and let the electorate decide how their seeming disregard for this ominous warning will effect their next vote.
On the scant chance that President Bush did not share this extraneous bit of intelligence with the Senate and House so that they could make an informed judgment on the invasion, then perhaps impeachment should be the next judgment.
Disclaimer: Steve Young is author of "Great Failures of the Extremely Successful" (www.greatfailure.com) and his "All The News That's Fit To Spoof" appears in L.A. Daily News opeds every Sunday (www.dailynews.com/steveyoung), right next to O'Reilly's...really.