Monday
Everything in this post is meant sincerely, including the title
In most debates about whether President Bush or other members of his Administration were mistaken or correct in a particular action or inaction, the premise is granted that the person arguing doesn't have access to the same (secret, classified, or just hard to access) information as the President and other members of government. This normally seems right, a large quantity of information (and the confidence with which such information should be believed) about the capabilities of foreign nations is presumed to be available to the President but not to you or me.
The President has now disclaimed this argumentative advantage, and wants all of his decisions to be evaluated based upon the publicly available information at the time. Or at least, that's how I read this story in which Pres. Bush explains his previous statement that no one predicted the failure of the levees.
Now, when someone says that based upon the best intelligence at the time it was reasonable to think that Iraq had nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, I don't need to worry about what the CIA or the State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research were saying at the time. Instead, I can check what CNN, ABC, or the New York Times were saying, and be confident that the quality of my information is as good as the President's.
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The President has now disclaimed this argumentative advantage, and wants all of his decisions to be evaluated based upon the publicly available information at the time. Or at least, that's how I read this story in which Pres. Bush explains his previous statement that no one predicted the failure of the levees.
Now, when someone says that based upon the best intelligence at the time it was reasonable to think that Iraq had nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, I don't need to worry about what the CIA or the State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research were saying at the time. Instead, I can check what CNN, ABC, or the New York Times were saying, and be confident that the quality of my information is as good as the President's.
