WMDMIA

So, what does the author of 2002 book, "The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq," have to say now about WMDs? Read a few paragraphs of this Norman Solomon article and find out.

With knee-jerk professional reflexes, American journalists assumed that Iraqi officials were lying about weapons of mass destruction -- and also assumed that officials such as George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and (especially) Colin Powell were being truthful. Overall, the news media helped to create a great market for war.

An author who soared in that bullish market was Kenneth Pollack, the former CIA analyst whose 2002 book "The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq" was a media-driven smash. A frequent presence on national television, Pollack eagerly promoted a book and a war at the same time. He called for a "massive invasion" of Iraq.

Now, in the current issue of the Atlantic magazine, Pollack has a long essay with a somewhat regretful tone. "What we have learned about Iraq's WMD programs since the fall of Baghdad leads me to conclude that the case for war with Iraq was considerably weaker than I believed," he writes. "I had been convinced that Iraq was only years away from having a nuclear weapon -- probably only four or five years. That estimate was clearly off, possibly by quite a bit."

In a just world, somebody whose credit is this tarnished wouldn't have a career anymore.