CIA Chief Falls-On-Sword,
But Act Is Misdirected Honor

By William F. Finucane

Whew, Central Intelligence Agency Director George J. Tenet has stepped up to the plate and admitted freely that he was the one responsible for letting President George W. Bush make false accusations about an Iraqi attempt to obtain uranium from Africa.

No big thing really.

It was simply one of the hard-hitting pieces of evidence in Bush’s State of the Union message. Just national policy on war was all it was. And the subject blew up in the administration’s face while he politicked in Africa.

Maybe this falling-on-his-sword tactic made for good home-style American sympathy for Tenet, and certainly Pres. George Bush stood by his man. But the entire scenario is just making the United States look more foolish in practically every other country. Everyone knows that the content of a State of the Union message is wholly and only owned and controlled by the president.

There is no wheedling out of it; what Bush said was what he decided to say and it was intended to give the United States added ammunition against Saddam Hussein, particularly in convincing the American public that action was necessary.

What is far worse, far more threatening to the current administration, however, is the chink this affair has made in the Bush armor. If this big deal is simply wrong, what else can be false?

How about the two trucks in Iran allegedly used to make various chemical or biological agents of mass destruction; was that dreamt up to add color to a speech?

And why is there no nuclear anything anywhere. You would think someone would find some of this stuff hidden somewhere now that the war has been declared over for months. Well, conservatives themselves now say nuclear weapons were never really a top ‘weapon of concern’ on the desert playing field. It now seems clear ‘nukes’ were actually more of a blatant scare tactic to get the American allies lined up for support. Nukes were just the thing. Useful.

There are other ‘almost’ evidentiary proofs from England’s Prime Minister Tony Blair and the American spy types. All are convincing as public speaking gimmicks.

As any brand of proof to any land on the planet other than America, however, they are laughable. Yes, yes, all of us are bone shattered at the Sept. 11, 2001, terror that used 18 men, some primitive weapons and four super jets to take out the twin towers of the American World Trade Center, and part of the Pentagon. They might well have even killed people in the White House, if not the president, had not the passengers in the fourth hijacked jetliner sacrificed their own lives by attacking the Muslim fanatics, which resulted in a fatal crash of the jet into a Pennsylvania field.

And of course we feel true resolve beating through our hearts as the United States and her allies have tried to find and kill Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

We believe he organized those airline attacks.

He killed 3,000 innocent Americans.

He deserved death.

Yet he lives.

Also, it seems, so does Saddam Hussein.

All of America’s huge, brilliant, destructive power could not kill either man.

What America’s violent reaction has done, beautifully, is create throngs of Muslim zealots. Even Middle Eastern ladies in the street, when they are asked opinions about the American forces, speak of western madmen bent on drawing every drop of blood they can from the Middle East, of westerner’s bent on destroying Islam.

That was not the Bush Administration’s original game plan. They said, way back when, ‘We want war with no one.’ But after 9-11 the Bush administration embraced international conflict wholeheartedly.

Now, we are pushing most other countries farther and farther away as United States foreign policy seems more like movie scripts of the Old West than statecraft. France and Germany were – in many ways – right about the United States. They just had the guts to say so. Now they are on the outs with many Americans.

But Americans should be arguing with the American government. That is the American way. Following the administration path is not patriotism; it is zealotry.

If we want to beat zealots, we must each think along our own lines and draw our own conclusions. We do not have to be right all the time. But we do have to think for ourselves. A right answer will eventually show itself if all minds are free to express themselves. Independence of thought, freedom of dialogue and discussion, has always brought America to a consensus of action.

Taking the blame for leaders is for Roman actors, not American patriots.

CIA chief Tenet may seem genuinely heroic. But he is clouding the air.

The real issues are simple: Did we have any clue that Iraq’s Hussein was in league with bin Laden? No. The men don’t mix.

Was there any real threat to the United States from Iraq? No. Is there a real threat to America from Iran? Nothing that is apparent.

Of course all of this leaves the rest of the world with the conclusion that this "war" with Iraq was just a grudge battle between Hussein and George Bush, the son of an earlier president, George  H.W. Bush,  who was put on a hit list by Hussein. In short, a family feud. Additionally, and obviously, there was world-wide cynicism over America’s taking control of the second largest oil producing property in the world.

Those two reasons do still stand up, no matter how slippery the other reasons have become on the slope of time. The other reasons have in fact faltered.

To the rest of western civilization, America has crossed a line. It has taken a pre-emptive strike. And it has done so because it can.

No one else can overpower America.

It will therefore fight terrorism, more or less, forever.

To have any chance at winning that perpetual conflict, it needs much, much more than clever speeches or gallant jumps upon one’s own sword.

Taking the blame in order to excuse a sitting president from the responsibility he owes American citizens is misplaced honor. CIA Director Tenet owes his first allegiance to the Constitution and his second to his fellow citizens; in that manner he will also properly serve the president who appointed him.

America’s foundation is its Constitution, and in this time period when one political party controls both the executive and legislative branches, as well as much of the judiciary, it is vital that the foundation not be eroded.

Now, when America faces perpetual war, the country needs its principles upheld and its public information clear and undistorted.

And finally, it needs thinking citizens. Desperately.