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October 03, 2006WMD In Lebanon!From a George Will piece, narrating another Woodward revelation: While leading the hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq in the summer of 2003, David Kay received a phone call from "Scooter" Libby, Dick Cheney's chief of staff, who wanted a particular place searched: "The vice president wants to know if you've looked at this area. We have indications -- and here are the geocoordinates -- that something's buried there." Kay and his experts located the area on the map. It was in the middle of Lebanon. This is why people like Colin Powell say Cheney caught the "fever", and why people like Brent Scowcroft see a changed man they don't recognize. One of the big stories of the Bush Administration, when historians look back, will be that Cheney lost his sobriety, his perspective, basically his marbles. Put simply, he's made one poor judgment after another. And we're all suffering for it, of course, not least as we all know the President relies on Cheney tremendously, given the former's intellectual limitations and stunted world view. Witness, also from the Will column: "Where's the leader?" Bush, according to Woodward, has exclaimed in dismay about the Iraqi government's dithering. "Where's George Washington? Where's Thomas Jefferson? Where's John Adams, for crying out loud?" For a president to ask that question about Iraq, that tribal stew, is enough to cause one to ask it about the United States. Almost makes you pity the man. He's in way over his head, and he has two failed advisors (Rumsfeld and Cheney) that he's chosen to lean on, in the main, as well as a relatively untested Secretary of State not genuinely respected by these last two. Ugly dynamics all around. But he's incapable of performing a real top to bottom house-cleaning, because he's deathly scared to lose the heretofore pillars that have kept him on his two feet. As I said, very ugly. Posted by Gregory at October 3, 2006 05:06 AMComments
Almost makes you pity the man. No. When he's had a true moment of Christian repentance, when he's begun to seek to undo some of the damage that he's done to our country, when he's served 20 or 30 years in prison for gross violations of the Geneva Conventions -- maybe. Until then, he can bear the title of Worst President in US History. It's certainly one of the few things in life that he's earned without Daddy's help. Posted by: Equal Opportunity Cynic at October 3, 2006 06:50 AM | Permalink to this comment
Greg,
How could you have ever deluded yourself to support this war in the first place? IMHO, anyone who asks this kind of question is likely to wind up supporting the next demagogue who comes along if that next demagogue presents himself as someone with a common political philsophy. For the vast majority of Americans, the collapse of the towers represented an existential crisis -- and in such a crisis, its natural and necessary to rally behind a leader. Greg did so, as did hundreds of millions of Americans---and those of us who saw through Bush were a distinct minority at that point. But if you really want an answer from Greg, read his recent "vanity" post. Posted by: p.lukasiak at October 3, 2006 11:32 AM | Permalink to this comment
Now this may be to simplify the calculus somewhat but isn't the virtue of democracy over the various forms of despotism supposed to be that the
Cheney's chief of staff, who wanted a particular place searched: The first thing that I though about when I read this, is that they had tortured some Muslim somewhere and he spurted out anything he could think of. Sad. Posted by: Russ at October 3, 2006 04:23 PM | Permalink to this comment
Woodward's "revelations" are anything but. The Bush 43 administration has lost all credibility with all non-cult members due to its clear policy of lying to the American people, and the planet, with callous and reckless abandon. Name your subject, and you are hard pressed to find anything this group has been honest about. Not just since 9/11, but from the beginning of Bush's Presidential campaign. Compassionate conservatism, c'est quoi? C'est intolérant! Compliant and complacent media types pumping pro-Bush straw-man rhetoric have become the norm. And now the Republic has legalized torture. America has officially joined the ranks of the uncivilized. Maher Arar knows quite well that the unofficial decision had been made years ago, and the country's people, as usual, are the last to know. The GOP's refusal, despite mountains of evidence, to seriously acknowledge errors and blunder on is the maddeningly lamentable reality we all live with. A mature person recognizes and admits the errors they made. The President of the United States thinks so little of his constituents that he won't accept any responsibility, nor demand some from his team. Posted by: Redwretch at October 3, 2006 07:06 PM | Permalink to this comment
Russ: Sad, and extremely plausible. Horrifically, depressingly plausible. Posted by: Equal Opportunity Cynic at October 3, 2006 08:05 PM | Permalink to this comment
I found the debate on "clear, hold and build" to be the most interesting part of this column. I have purchased Woodward's book, but I have yet to read it. Hopefully I remedy that soon. But, from what I have gathered, Rumsfeld wants the following to occur: American forces clear, Iraqis hold, confluence builds. The Iraqis have not held much once US forces have left. So, if that's the plan, it needs to be reevaluated. But, Bush's speeches in 2005 and 2006 cite "clear, hold and build" as the US strategy -- they at least imply that we are doing that. We are, of course, attempting no such thing. Listen to Colonel MacFarland, Colonel Devlin, Maj Gen Caldwell. They are all using Rumsfeld's guidelines. The amount of re-think needed in this command structure is staggering. Posted by: Chris at October 3, 2006 09:05 PM | Permalink to this comment
I think that Will ignores the entire point of this book, the lessons of the past 6 years, and the history's own lessons. First of all, Bush is responsible for a lapse of intelligence gathering in terms of the 9/11 attacks. Although he was not physically involved in the gathering of intelligence, the attacks occured on his watch while he was the Commander-In-Chief. There was a reason why Pres. Reagan made the comment "The buck stops here" and that is because the President is at the very top of our leadership and everything that happens on his watch he is responsible for (if he wasn't comfortable with that he shouldn't have even run for president). Second of all, the true lessons of the last 6 years is that (1) we should not expect a country with literally no existant infrastructure (after we bombed it into "...the stone age") to suddenly be able to support itself without any support, (2) a form of government should not be imposed on a country that has no prior history with it, (3) although US forces were dominant they were not nearly as thorough (leaving behind weapons caches, not securing their rear as they moved through the country) as they should have been due to the lack of personnel and equipment, and (4) we must provide the Iraqis with a reason to like us, simply removing Saddam from power does not make them beholden unto us. Historically, there are a myriad of case studies that would have proved beneficial to the planning of the "War on Terror" ranging the gambet between Pompey's defeat of the pirates in the Mediterranian to our own revolution to the German blitzkrieg of France to the post-war occupation of Germany and Japan all of these were ignored for whatever reason. These are the things that we have to take away from this. In the military, we had a phrase P to the Sixth (Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance) we also believed that when you are in charge you are responsible. Oh, and Mr Will there is always corruption in any government but that does that mean that you should shrug your shoulders and say "C'est la vie" and let it slide. Yes it attracts the highly motivated, etc. but it can and has operated with far more efficiency in the past. Posted by: jhass at October 3, 2006 10:48 PM | Permalink to this comment
President Bush at leasts asks a question -- accidentally perhaps, but still -- that rarely occurs to American advocates of bringing democracy to various countries around the world. It occurs so rarely, I think, because Americans are prone to take our own history for granted. Washingtons and Jeffersons do not just happen. They certainly do not just pop up when a tyrant has been overthrown somewhere. Yet the construction of a free society depends more upon the existence of such leaders than it does upon the enthusiasm of ordinary people for voting. To expect them to have appeared in Iraq -- and to wonder years after Saddam's overthrow that they have not -- suggests to me that the extraordinary good fortune of the United States in its early years is a lesson Bush never absorbed. In fairness to him, most other Americans haven't absorbed it either. As an aside -- and I know it makes little more sense to snipe at a columnist like George Will than to rail against a blogger -- but how a potential President might handle himself under duress is always a consideration in the years before a Presidential election. As I recall, during the 2000 primaries George Will was more exercised about campaign finance reform and the mortal threat it posed to American freedom. Posted by: Zathras at October 3, 2006 11:30 PM | Permalink to this comment
jhass,
According to this longer excerpt, the bogus tip came from con-men Manucher Ghorbanifar and Michael Ledeen. More infomation was available for $2 million cash delivered to Ghorba. What, doesn't the American Enterprise Institute have a health and pension plan? Posted by: Andrew J. Lazarus at October 4, 2006 05:10 AM | Permalink to this comment
According to this longer excerpt, the bogus tip came from con-men Manucher Ghorbanifar and Michael Ledeen. More infomation was available for $2 million cash delivered to Ghorba. What, doesn't the American Enterprise Institute have a health and pension plan? Posted by: Andrew J. Lazarus at October 4, 2006 05:11 AM | Permalink to this comment
"...and why people like Brent Scowcroft see a changed man they don't recognize."
I read that Lebanon WMD story on Debka file during the war and I thought it was believable, supposedly Saddam had his WMDs trucking into Syria and the weapons were transferred to a bunker in the Bekka Valley with Assad's approval. I guess until someone's investigated the place it's still possible, but it worrying that someone like the Vice President of the US doesn't know any more about these stories than I do - and believes the stories. Posted by: jerry at October 4, 2006 01:49 PM | Permalink to this comment
"suggests to me that the extraordinary good fortune of the United States in its early years is a lesson Bush never absorbed. In fairness to him, most other Americans haven't absorbed it either." Most other Americans don't have a BS in History from Yale. Posted by: Jon H at October 4, 2006 06:16 PM | Permalink to this comment
Scowcroft, who toasted the Tiananamen gerontocrats, who invited
> Seriously, you want to risk the chance of nuclear tipped Shahabs You don't seriously want to risk the chance of a nuclear attack by Israel do you? Of course not, we must attack Israel now, you are quite correct. You don't seriously want to risk the chance of a nuclear attack by Pakistan, or its southern provinces, do you? Of course not, we must attack Paktistan now, you are quite correct. You don't seriously want to risk the chance of a nuclear attack by North Korea do you? Of course not, we must attack North Korea now, you are quite correct. You don't seriously want to risk the chance of a nuclear attack by India, do you? Of course not, we must attack India now, you are quite correct. You don't seriously want to risk the chance of a nuclear attack by Russia, do you? Of course not, we must attack Russia now, you are quite correct.
Alquaybat, that approach doesn't *sound* strong. It *smells* strong. ;) Posted by: J Thomas at October 7, 2006 11:45 PM | Permalink to this comment
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