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The top U.S. Marine commander in Iraq said Friday that U.S. intelligence was "simply wrong" in its assessment that Saddam Hussein intended to unleash chemical or biological weapons against U.S. forces during the war, but he stopped short of saying there was an overall intelligence failure.

I hope this isn't a career ending move by Conway.

If we believe the reporter, only two words in that line belong to Gen Conway, "simply wrong", which makes we wonder about the context. The next few quotes, "It was a surprise to me then, it remains a surprise to me now, that we have not uncovered weapons...It's not for lack of trying... seem to make perfect sense, so I wouldn't worry much about the General.

There is no reason to be calling this an intelligence failure, or for saying "we were wrong" about Iraqi intentions. Does anyone but me remember the speech Dubya gave the Monday before the war started?

And all Iraqi military and civilian personnel should listen carefully to this warning. In any conflict, your fate will depend on your action. Do not destroy oil wells, a source of wealth that belongs to the Iraqi people. Do not obey any command to use weapons of mass destruction against anyone, including the Iraqi people. War crimes will be prosecuted. War criminals will be punished. And it will be no defense to say, "I was just following orders."

Is it not possible that the Iraqi military did intend to use these weapons, but that the president's comments caused them to have second thoughts -- especially in the lower echelons, who were the people most likely to be caught and punished?