Bush: Maybe You Should Have Read the NIE

There have been numerous anecdotes saying President Bush never read the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) about Iraq before making the decision to go to war. The CIA developed a new NIE shortly before the invasion at the request of the White House. Although a rush job (these are usually complicated and lengthy documents) the analysts were able to provide one before the final decision was made to attack. There are also numerous reports that Bush didn't read the NIE before signing orders precipitating war. He only read a one page summary.

Raw Story is reporting the shocking information that George W. Bush didn't even know, or understand, that two separate sects of Islam existed and were in Iraq. Perhaps if Bush had bothered to educate himself a bit about Iraq, the people and cultures there, it's history, etc. the law of unintended consequences wouldn't have come crashing down upon us, the Iraqi people, and the entire Middle East.

Georgie Boy couldn't be bothered actually reading the entire National Intelligence Estimate however. Maybe he was busy clearing brush, riding his trail bike, doing a photo op somewhere, or listening to Condi play the piano. I cannot imagine declaring war without doing every bit of research and getting as much knowledge as possible about the situation. I'm not George W. Bush however.

Of course we know from Ray McGovern that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Condi had made their minds up about invading Iraq long before the NIE was drafted. McGovern, the CIA analyst who wrote Bush's PDB's at the time, has said he was told six months prior to the invasion that the minds had been made up and war was inevitable. When he complained the President hadn't taken his warning about cooked and twisted intelligence seriously White House aides explained that "it wasn't about wmd's anymore but regime change." I heard this directly from Ray McGovern last month.

So what have the consequences been of not understanding that there are different branches of Islam? What have the consequences been of not knowing both sects exist in Iraq? We all know about the 2500+ American soldiers killed. Go here and here to see what's happening to the Iraqis.