You mention the oath, I recall recently white house staffers saying they took an oath to serve the PRESIDENT, a statement which completely floored me. I am sure Powell didn't confuse the purpose of his oath, but he certainly marched in like a good soldier and presented a false case to the UN. Whether he know it was false or not is up to you and me to judge, because all parties involved have their story and are stickin' to it. I for one believe Bush/Cheney knew exactly what they were doing, and think perhaps Powell couldn't fathom that the President and VP would cook the books to go to war, which is what I believe was done, and what the evidence seems to support.
And speaking of evidence and intelligence budget. Somehow on the way out the door Clinton and his National Security advisor had their "hair on fire" about Al Qaeda and in outgoing briefings stressed how this was a serious danger that needed to be priority ONE of the next administration. The Bushies laughed them off and completely ignored the threat, even after getting the INTELLIGENCE MEMO AUG 5th saying "BIN LADEN DETERMINED TO ATTACK INSIDE THE USA", so it's pretty tough to blame the failures on "intelligence", again, unless you are talking about "Bush's intelligence"....
Irie