I think it's a "slam dunk" which it was. And not to parse, but I don't believe anyone in the administration ever claimed "operational" ties, or even "significant" ties between Saddam and AQ. .
"long history of ties" Sounds to me like the Bush administration was engaging in good old fashioned fear mongering to whip up support for the war. Simple.
The administration overplayed its hand to whip up the post 9-11 climate to go to war. Really, it's that simple. Administration officials repeated over and over again these "ties" and "connections." That, combined with the "slam dunk" case laid out by Powell before the UN on WMDs completes the circle of simply manipulating bad information to go to war. You either have to be completely blind or unbelievably partisan to not see we got played.
And looking at ALL available evidence to make a decision to go to war? Nope. Not this administration.