"to say about the Iraq war, <"Its entire premise was based upon an utter failure in inteligence">
and not suggest the American people were flat lied to about the reasons for invading Iraq.

For you not to suggest that Bush wanted to start a war and only listened to that "intelligence" that supported his plans shows a kindness of spirit that is willing to excuse a lot--up to a point.

I would be less ashamed of my government if I could just be convinced the war was a "failure in intelligence." Please note here the reference is to clandestine and demographic government branch intelligence and not a failure of Bush's intelligence."

I would say that considering all the circumstances, the US intelligence was pretty good. Of course our in house intelligence in regard to Iraq was "apparently" not very good, and our high tech spying also was "apparently" far lowered than I would have expected. But our intelligence isn't dependent solely on CIA agents. I would say that most of our intelligence regarding Iraq depended upon allied intelligent services. And by "allied" I don't mean code word: Israel. The Brits were pretty good in this regard, but they have long tradition of taking this craft seriously. [Personally I'm not a big fan of whole idea of state run intelligence services, but like socialism maybe the UK has better chance of getting value out of it.] Though of course the UK actually got it more wrong than US with their 45 min thing. Though Saddam was apparently violating the cease fire agreement in regards to missiles, I've seen nothing that supports that specific claim and was endless dragged through UK media.
But I'm mostly referring to intelligence services of countries bordering or near Iraq.

Of course if Publius wants to be ashamed that's *actually* his problem- regardless of the weak attempt at projection.

Though I would say that our miltary and the troops which are serving their country are one the finest that we have ever seen. And speaking badly of their Commander in Chief can't be bringing any honor to Publius. For that reason alone it's hardly surprising that Publius is feeling shame. That he is both very confused and ashamed wouldn't be too surprising.