The reason is that Tenet was telling Bush and Cheney and the hawks what they wanted to hear all along - that Saddam Hussein had weapons and we had the evidence to bring him to war.
We have to ask ourselves why would Bush have kept Tenet in the first place. Tenet was appointed to the job during the last administration under Clinton (whose years as president are referred to as "the good 'ol days"). And the Bush administration got rid of everything Clinton had done - appointments, regulations and policies. They kept on Richard Clarke, author of the best-selling Against All Enemies, as terrorism czar plainly because they didn't believe terrorism was an issue that needed their attention. And we also know how much they listened to Clarke.
So why keep Tenet? Because from day one of the administration, Bush was asking how to get Saddam, and Tenet spoke up everytime - Saddam has weapons of mass destruction.
So after 9-11, when the nation's intelligence failed the people miserably, there was Tenet, still head of the CIA. And during the build-up of the case for war, there was Tenet, sitting behind Secretary of State Colin Powell, pleading to the world at the UN that Saddam had WMD and was a threat to all humanity. And after the missing WMDs came to light, there was Tenet, still head of the CIA.
Bush does not like to show his weaknesses (which should be extremely tough being that he has so many) so he kept Tenet to prove the world that he still believes that Saddam had weapons (and that we just can't find them - like that pair of car keys in the morning).
The dust has now settled. There are no WMDs and there may never had been any. And Bush has "suffered" greatly by his choice to go into this unnecessary war. And months later, as talk of WMDs has morphed into discussion of Abu Ghraib (which didn't involve Tenet), the director has resigned from his position for personal reasons.
Labels: bush
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