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Wolfowitz: Bush administration was "clueless"

Tricky

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Tricky
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We haven't heard from Paul Wolfowitz for some time. He's popped up in the news with a story bound to shock and awe everyone. The Bush administration had no idea what it was doing when it invaded Iraq.
Paul Wolfowitz, the Pentagon's No. 2 during and after the invasion of Iraq, now says officials were "clueless" when it came to fighting insurgents.
"No one anticipated this insurgency, a lot of people were slow to recognize it once it started,"
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To be fair, he is not cutting himself any slack for this cluelessness, but is another weight on the "fail" side of the scale for the Bush presidency. I realize that hindsight is 20:20, but even those who might have originally thought the invasion was a good idea must have figured out pretty quickly that we were in over our heads. I honestly don't know what we could have done at that point, since we couldn't very well abandon the country to the insurgents once we had tossed out the only enforcment power there, but it underscores the absolutely awful decisions that were made and the brainless planning that was done before we decided to pursue this course.

How much of the US's current problems were due to these wretched decisions is hard to say, but I think it is safe to say that we would be better off if this band of bozos hadn't been in charge.

Joseph Collins, an ex-deputy to Donald Rumsfeld stirred up the waters with his book Choosing War, which featured quotes like:
Senior national security officials exhibited in many instances an imperious attitude, exerting power and pressure where diplomacy and bargaining might have had a better effect.
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Bad news for Bush who's busy trying to hide behind the activity of the election and the obvious international problems that are not his doing in order to prop up his legacy. But it won't work. This duck isn't lame, it's quadaplegic.
 
I'm still slack-jawed when I consider how the "intelligence" from "Curveball," a congenital liar, who no-one in the CIA never even met until after the fact, became the centerpiece of the Administration's presentation to the UN. It would be comical if it wasn't so tragic.
 
A somewhat surreal story from Iraq

AWJA, Iraq (Reuters) - Hundreds of Iraqi schoolchildren were brought to the modest mausoleum of Saddam Hussein on Monday to celebrate the birthday of the executed dictator in the village where he was born.

Saddam, who was hanged in late 2006 for crimes against humanity, is hated in much of Iraq. But in parts of his native Salahuddin Province, especially among his fellow Sunni Arabs, he is still revered.

"Bush, Bush you low-life! Saddam's blood is not cheap!" a crowd of pupils in white uniforms from a nearby girls' school chanted while standing around Saddam's grave in the mausoleum where he is buried among displays and photos of his reign.

"There are two things we will never give up: Saddam and Iraq!" the girls chanted. Several of them wept.

They entered the building carrying a banner which read: "We will not forget you, Papa Saddam," and kissed the dictator's grave.
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Feith, Wolfowitz...All the neocon crowd seem to be writing and saying it wasn't their fault.

They had Feith on Diane Rehm a couple of weeks ago. Perhaps it's just his manner, but the fellow came across like someone uncomfortably wiggling under intense cross-examination by a tough prosecutor, rather than being on a public-radio talk show.
Seemed that he weighed every word he said....

Sy Hersh was particularly scathing in his criticism of Doug, as I recall.
 
As a lot of you know, I initially supported the invasion, but after 6 months, it became painfully clear to me that the administration had not a clue what it was doing. Bush has been a curse and a pox on this country, it will take many years to clean the stain he has left.

This is worth repeating:

How much of the US's current problems were due to these wretched decisions is hard to say, but I think it is safe to say that we would be better off if this band of bozos hadn't been in charge.
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a_unique_person said:
What fraction of a century did the PNAC last?
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A small one. Not a substantially bigger fraction of their prophesied timespan than the Thousand-Year Reich. (And that´s not quite but almost the extent of the Godwin-worthyness of the PNAC)
 
Upchurch said:
Joe, why would anyone think to consult former Secretary of State Dick Cheney? Be reasonable.
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Former Secretary of Defense, Uppie. ;)

As for Wolfowitz, this guy has a lot of damned gall to open his yap. He spent considerable of his time and intellect pre 2003 selling the Iraq war as a step toward transforming the Middle East.

He has no room to talk when it comes to clueless.

One of the dumber smart guys around.
 
Darth Rotor said:
Former Secretary of Defense, Uppie. ;)
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To-MAY-to, To-MAH-to. He's still just some poor schlep from a previous administration that we couldn't expect the current administration to consult on every little thing, like why deposing Saddam would hypothetically be a "bad idea" and lead to an "insurgency" and a "quagmire" ultimately making the region "unstable". That would just be unreasonable for the current administration to consider.





thanks
 
Upchurch said:
To-MAY-to, To-MAH-to. He's still just some poor schlep from a previous administration that we couldn't expect the current administration to consult on every little thing, like why deposing Saddam would hypothetically be a "bad idea" and lead to an "insurgency" and a "quagmire" ultimately making the region "unstable". That would just be unreasonable for the current administration to consider.





thanks
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Right down the memory hole, right?

Or is this where he barks "so what?" at America, and then rolls around in oil money?
 
I’m not a conspiracy theorist. I’m just saying that if we had elected Colonel Sanders president and the price of chicken had tripled, I’d be a little suspicious.
-Bill Maher
 
a_unique_person said:
What fraction of a century did the PNAC last?
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The Project for a New American Century was founded in 1997, and their website doesn't have any updates since December of 2006, so about 1/10 of a century, although that doesn't mean the PNAC is dead per se. (Especially since most of the articles are just editorials written for magazines and newspapers.)

Although in all fairness, it was the Project for a New American Century, and thus the PNAC itself was not claimed to exist for a hundred years. Strictly speaking the goal of a New American Century will only fail if America ceases to be the dominant power in the world, which has not quite happened yet, although I suspect it will.
 
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UserGoogol said:
The Project for a New American Century was founded in 1997, and their website doesn't have any updates since December of 2006, so about 1/10 of a century, although that doesn't mean the PNAC is dead per se. (Especially since most of the articles are just editorials written for magazines and newspapers.)

Although in all fairness, it was the Project for a New American Century, and thus the PNAC itself was not claimed to exist for a hundred years. Strictly speaking the goal of a New American Century will only fail if America ceases to be the dominant power in the world, which has not quite happened yet, although I suspect it will.
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[Tom Lehrer]
Und I'm learning Chinese
Says Werner Von Braun[/Tom Lehrer]
 
UserGoogol said:
Strictly speaking the goal of a New American Century will only fail if America ceases to be the dominant power in the world, which has not quite happened yet, although I suspect it will.
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Well, strictly speaking, the Project for a New American Century would fail if it fails to meet its stated goals. It's been a while since I've actually read the document, but it seems to me they are further from their ultimate goals than when they started.
 
Well the oil companies have done rather well - so it is an ill wind.
 
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