Iran Tricked the US into Iraq Invasion?

Earlier in the week the Guardian reported claims appearing in the US intelligence community that Ahmad Chalabi, the alleged source of intelligence on Iraq for the Office of Special Plans run by Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Feith at the Pentagon, was in fact an agent for Iran.

The theory goes that Chalabi was used to feed misleading intelligence to draw the US into invading Iraq. Here are a few quotes from the article (click here to read the full text):

"It's pretty clear that Iranians had us for breakfast, lunch and dinner," said an intelligence source in Washington yesterday. "Iranian intelligence has been manipulating the US for several years through Chalabi."
Larry Johnson, a former senior counter-terrorist official at the state department, said: "When the story ultimately comes out we'll see that Iran has run one of the most masterful intelligence operations in history. They persuaded the US and Britain to dispose of its greatest enemy."

Is this credible? Yes, I think it has a shred of credibility. Is it likely? No.

Iran may have been one small piece in the puzzle, but to suggest they were masterful manipulators is simply a way of directing responsibility away from the utter stupidity of the Bush Administration and the American intelligence community.

In the case of the Bush Administration, they had been aching for a reason to take over Iraq since well before the senior members had even come to power. The intelligence used to justify the war was clearly flawed, and anyone with a brain, even from outside could see that.

The American intelligence community, on the other hand, operated largely like a bunch of cowards afraid for their jobs. While there were a few notable exceptions, most of the higher ups in American intelligence did not do their jobs, and vociferously oppose an invasion they knew was ill advised.

The Iraq War will likely do immense damage to the projection of American power in the world, and I have no doubt a large part of the American intelligence community know this.

Sadly, what appears to be happening now is an overinflation of Iranian involvement in an attempt to blame outside forces, while also making the neo-cons look like utter dupes. While I agree the neo-cons are numbskulls, the rest of the American intelligence community should not be let off the hook for their complacency in the face of such sheer stupidity.