"intelligence" capabilities

"we simply cannot afford failures of this magnitude."

"The harm done to American credibility by our all too public intelligence failures in Iraq will take years to undo."

This from a report released today by the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction that was appointed by President Bush a year ago. The commission is led by Laurence H. Silberman, a retired federal judge, and Charles S. Robb, a former Democratic governor and senator from Virginia.

The report also concludes that while many other nations believed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, "in the end, it was the United States that put its credibility on the line, making this one of the most public - and most damaging - intelligence failures in recent American history."

Who will accept responsibility for this? Where does the buck stop?

Maybe a better question is, when will one of these "commissions" include "policy" in their mandate?

This just in from the Wall Street journal Op/Ed page "In any event, whether under the influence of hope or fear, the buck stops not with the intelligence community but with the policy makers."