I headed a multiagency intelligence task force focused on Iraq back in 2002-2003, and the interference from the Bush White House then did not reach the level of daily calls to CENTCOM spies. What’s been going on in Tampa recently has the appearance of being even worse. Given the role that Bush’s mishandling of Iraq, including the intelligence scandal about WMDs, played in his administration’s troubles, it’s painfully ironic that Obama may have gone down a similar road.

Manipulating intelligence analysis is hardly a new problem inside the Beltway. A better analogy for the current scandal may not be Iraq 2003 but Vietnam 1967, when intelligence analysts who worked for the military painted a rosy picture of how America’s counterinsurgency in Vietnam was going. A nasty interagency spat ensued that left lasting bitterness in the Intelligence Community, not least because the enemy’s Tet Offensive of January 1968 showed that the pessimists had been right.

Let’s hope we don’t have to suffer a Tet-like setback at the hands of the Islamic State to illustrate how inaccurate, and politically skewed, CENTCOM intelligence has been. Today General Austin testified before the Senate’s armed services committee. It was not an inspiring performance, with Austin fumbling basic questions about the progress of Operation Inherent Resolve.