bq. "Walk back the cat" is spy slang for retracing the train of evidence and assumptions until the double agent, the false source or the analytic error is identified. The cat unraveled the ball of string. Rewind the twisted yarn to find the flaw."
As Donald Sensing points out, the issue of missing WMD in Iraq raises issues that are far more significant than the trivial political "Bush Lied" b-s. Austin Bay sums it up as follows:
bq. "...If our intelligence can't reliably identify weapons stockpiles and the process of proliferation, the next 9-11 will be far more terrible."
Anyone out there arguing that failure to find WMD in Iraq means they can't trust their government needs to consider that this intelligence assessment was very widely shared. They're actually quite right about the trust, just not in the way they think. The CIA et. al. had 13 years of Saddam as a target to figure out what was going on. If they failed under those circumstances, that government cannot in fact be trusted... to accurately assess the origins of WMD threats (or terrorist acts), and offer timely warnings about the point at which WMD threats become serious enough for action.
Feeling safe yet? Sleep well.
UPDATE: Blaster isn't sleeping well.
Looks like they may have found some WMD
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_399454,00050004.htm
Some people will always be convinced that sixteen words about uranium are more important than 10 years of unanimous bipartisan (and U.N. and foreign) assessments of Iraqi WMD, despite the recent backtracking, in particular on the part of the the thoroughly dishonorable Mr. Blix. People are indeed drawing the wrong inferences and the politicization of the P/W scandal risks reinforcing that complacency at the least propitious moment (Iran, North Korea, etc.). Condoleeza Rice's mushroom cloud metaphor is proving more and more apt.
Maybe I'll start sleeping in the safe room.
I always heard this expression differently.
Like this:
"Walking the dog backwards..."