Iraq answers

By Editorial

It was refreshing this week to hear President Bush's call for an independent panel to examine intelligence failures surrounding the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Last March, the administration was eager to rush to depose Saddam Hussein on grounds that the dictator posed an imminent threat, that weapons of mass destruction poised a clear and present danger to America.

Fair enough. In today's post-9/11 world, it is hard to image governments â€" ours or others' â€" to view foreign policy and security with complacency, especially when terrorists and rogue states can easily wreak havoc with biological or chemical weapons. Fear is still alive, as we have seen with a Ricin scare in the Senate this week.

But that shouldn't cloud good judgement, especially when spending billions of dollars and committing thousands of troops into a war for which it was hard to connect the dots. David Kay, the former top U.S. weapons inspector, bluntly labeled the White House's prewar intelligence as a failure.

Whatever the case, an independent panel free of White House meddling is appropriate. If answers don't turn up in the president's favor, then the American people are owed an apology â€" one they may pay back to the administration in the November elections.