One of the favorite pastimes in Washington, DC is something called the Blame Game, in which players scurry around while arguing about whose at fault in the most recent scandal. The object is to point your finger at someone else while you frantically struggle to cover your own butt, even as that other person is pointing right back at you.
Since 9/11/01, the game had been on something of a hiatus, but that's now changing. And who do we have to blame for this? Well, that's what the game is all about.
It started with a British report of questionable reliability saying that Saddam had tried to buy uranium from Niger. The CIA agreed it was questionable--or maybe they didn't. At first they said yes, it was; then they said it wasn't. In the meantime, George Bush cited the British report in his State of the Union address. The White House claims no one told them the report's accuracy was in question. But now the British were saying that it must be true because the Americans believed that it was. Then the CIA agreed the report was accurate because the British said so. And before long it turns out that yes, a piece of fluffy foam can, under the right circumstances, punch a hole in the wing of a space shuttle, but only if it's a fox attacking bald eagles in the National Zoo, and not a giant Gambian rat.
So now probes will be launched, committees will meet, experts will weigh in with opinions, pontificating Senators will pontificate, Democrats & Republicans will blame each other, and Saddam will have the last laugh. But in the end, after all the hand wringing is done, nothing will have been accomplished.
It's what Washington does best.