Wampum

Captain's Quarters defends the administration with regard to the mobile hydrogen factories:

The Pentagon didn't send one team of experts to review the trailers; they sent three, presumably to get a diverse analysis of the evidence, especially since the pre-war intel on WMD had come up remarkably short. That sounds like a prudent strategy to me, having competing teams research the same equipment and evidence to develop independent analyses to present to the Pentagon. They did so, and two of the three teams provided conclusions that fit the pre-war intel, while one did not.

So where's the issue? It turns out that the minority report was the correct analysis after all, of course, but at the time Bush spoke it was just that -- a minority report. To put it in advertising terms, two out of three inspectors agreed that the trailers were part of Saddam's WMD effort. The Pentagon relied on that majority opinion, as did the administration, and no one can argue that doing so constituted either an intent to deceive or even an unreasonable decision at the time.

So, two-thirds of the teams the administration sent to inspect alleged WMD factories were unable to tell the difference between a facility designed to manufacture hydrogen from one designed to manufacture smallpox or anthrax. In proclaiming the administration innocent of mendacity, Captain's Quarterts convicts it of incompetence. Were two of the teams staffed with members of the International Arabian Horse Association?

Let's accept the plea of incompetence. Once the definitive report from actual experts became available, why did folks like Dick Cheney keep on insisting that the hydrogen trailers actually were WMD factories?

It looks like convictions for both incompetence and mendacity are appropriate.