Friday, October 29, 2004
This week's scandals
This week has seen three scandals which seem to capture everything there is to say about the Bush administration: incompetence, venality, dishonesty, coverups, and polcies that drastically undermine national security while claiming to bolster it.
1. The missing explosives. After a week of coverage (on which the best summary is given by the running commentary over at TPM), it seems fairly clear that there were ~380 tons of high explosives at the al Qaa Qa facility which disappeared, likely into the hands of the insurgents who have been blowing up our troops and Iraqi recruits. There is no way to interpret the facts that makes the Bush admin look good. It took a year for the disappearance to be investigated, despite the fact that we supposedly went to Iraq to prevent terrorists from getting dangerous weapons. Those terrorists have now gotten the weapons because of our clumsy invasion and inadequately planned and manned reconstruction. They now have the men and materiel to keep up the guerilla war indefinitely. What's more, the Bush admin's initial response to the story was to lie about having checked for the weapons and not found them in the early days of the wa. It turns out the only forces to check out al Qaa Qa were just passing through, and couldn't have surveyed the full complex in their one night there; what's more, careful examination of videotape shows the explosives were there all along, and only disappeared after we invaded. (The Bushies also blamed the Iraqis---who didn't take power till after the explosives were known to be missing, and the US troops who weren't ordered to secure the facility, or given the men to do it. A class act those Bushies).
Bottom line: the Bush people screwed up in starting a war they weren't prepared to lead, and through their incompetence have gotten more than a thousand American soldiers killed, and delivered dangerous weapons into the hands of our enemies. Nice going guys. If you'd listened to anyone before starting this mad scheme, this wouldn't have happened.
2. Halliburton contracts were corrupt. A senior contracting official has blown the whistle. (FYI, you have to be pretty corrupt to upset the Army Corps of Engineers, historically the most pork riddeen agency in the Federal government). Now the FBI is on the case. The Bushies call it politically motivated, but somehow I don't think the FBI is a branch of the Democratic Party. And they've got documents.
3. Now we know why Bush went to war. According to his own ghostwriter, Bush planned the war as early as 1999 because he thought winning an easy war would give him the political capital needed to muscle through his domestic agenda and win reelection. This is beyond cynical---waging a war for political gain is flat out treason. The article is worth reading for various quotes on Bush's idea of "leadership", e.g.:
“He told me that as a leader, you can never admit to a mistake,” Herskowitz said. “That was one of the keys to being a leader.”
and
“He was thinking about invading Iraq in 1999,” said author and journalist Mickey Herskowitz. “It was on his mind. He said to me: ‘One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief.’ And he said, ‘My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it.’ He said, ‘If I have a chance to invade….if I had that much capital, I’m not going to waste it. I’m going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I’m going to have a successful presidency.”
I'm beginning to think that when Bush says he's the leader, he means Il Duce.
We have got to get him out of office.
1. The missing explosives. After a week of coverage (on which the best summary is given by the running commentary over at TPM), it seems fairly clear that there were ~380 tons of high explosives at the al Qaa Qa facility which disappeared, likely into the hands of the insurgents who have been blowing up our troops and Iraqi recruits. There is no way to interpret the facts that makes the Bush admin look good. It took a year for the disappearance to be investigated, despite the fact that we supposedly went to Iraq to prevent terrorists from getting dangerous weapons. Those terrorists have now gotten the weapons because of our clumsy invasion and inadequately planned and manned reconstruction. They now have the men and materiel to keep up the guerilla war indefinitely. What's more, the Bush admin's initial response to the story was to lie about having checked for the weapons and not found them in the early days of the wa. It turns out the only forces to check out al Qaa Qa were just passing through, and couldn't have surveyed the full complex in their one night there; what's more, careful examination of videotape shows the explosives were there all along, and only disappeared after we invaded. (The Bushies also blamed the Iraqis---who didn't take power till after the explosives were known to be missing, and the US troops who weren't ordered to secure the facility, or given the men to do it. A class act those Bushies).
Bottom line: the Bush people screwed up in starting a war they weren't prepared to lead, and through their incompetence have gotten more than a thousand American soldiers killed, and delivered dangerous weapons into the hands of our enemies. Nice going guys. If you'd listened to anyone before starting this mad scheme, this wouldn't have happened.
2. Halliburton contracts were corrupt. A senior contracting official has blown the whistle. (FYI, you have to be pretty corrupt to upset the Army Corps of Engineers, historically the most pork riddeen agency in the Federal government). Now the FBI is on the case. The Bushies call it politically motivated, but somehow I don't think the FBI is a branch of the Democratic Party. And they've got documents.
3. Now we know why Bush went to war. According to his own ghostwriter, Bush planned the war as early as 1999 because he thought winning an easy war would give him the political capital needed to muscle through his domestic agenda and win reelection. This is beyond cynical---waging a war for political gain is flat out treason. The article is worth reading for various quotes on Bush's idea of "leadership", e.g.:
“He told me that as a leader, you can never admit to a mistake,” Herskowitz said. “That was one of the keys to being a leader.”
and
“He was thinking about invading Iraq in 1999,” said author and journalist Mickey Herskowitz. “It was on his mind. He said to me: ‘One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief.’ And he said, ‘My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it.’ He said, ‘If I have a chance to invade….if I had that much capital, I’m not going to waste it. I’m going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I’m going to have a successful presidency.”
I'm beginning to think that when Bush says he's the leader, he means Il Duce.
We have got to get him out of office.
