Give Back The Medal

George Tenet is getting a lot of mileage slamming the President and the Vice President and their rush to war. He's only the latest of dozens of authors who have recounted those days. But there's something different about Tenet, and I agree with Larry Johnson and the other CIA officials who wrote to the former Director. An excerpt:

You are on the record complaining about the “damage to your reputation”. In our view the damage to your reputation is inconsequential compared to the harm your actions have caused for the U.S. soldiers engaged in combat in Iraq and the national security of the United States. We believe you have a moral obligation to return the Medal of Freedom you received from President George Bush. We also call for you to dedicate a significant percentage of the royalties from your book to the U.S. soldiers and their families who have been killed and wounded in Iraq.

We agree with you that Vice President Dick Cheney and other Bush administration officials took the United States to war for flimsy reasons. We agree that the war of choice in Iraq was ill-advised and wrong headed. But your lament that you are a victim in a process you helped direct is self-serving, misleading and, as head of the intelligence community, an admission of failed leadership. You were not a victim. You were a willing participant in a poorly considered policy to start an unnecessary war and you share culpability with Dick Cheney and George Bush for the debacle in Iraq.

Sorry, but that's completely true. And even if Tenet was a complete scapegoat, he didn't make any moves to distance himself from the Administration's Iraq policy when it mattered, in 2002 and 2003. For his part Tenet has said he'd never give the medal back. I understand why; it's hard to wash all of that blood off it, so I doubt they could reuse it.