Saturday, October 07, 2006
Fiasco
On my flight back to the states, I picked up Tom Ricks' Fiasco - The American Adventure in Iraq.
Ricks, who covers the Pentagon for the Washington Post, has done an outstanding job of painting a picture of the Bush administration which intentionally pushed the worst-case scenario of the threat Iraq posed to its neighbors and the U.S. (a smoking gun that is a mushroom cloud), while at the same time foolishly bet on a best-case scenario for the post-invasion mission (cake walk).
Anyone who has been paying attention has heard much of this damning evidence before. But Ricks masterfully ties it together with some great quotes, many from current and former U.S. military personnel. Here's a sample from a senior U.S. military intelligence officer:
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Ricks, who covers the Pentagon for the Washington Post, has done an outstanding job of painting a picture of the Bush administration which intentionally pushed the worst-case scenario of the threat Iraq posed to its neighbors and the U.S. (a smoking gun that is a mushroom cloud), while at the same time foolishly bet on a best-case scenario for the post-invasion mission (cake walk).
Anyone who has been paying attention has heard much of this damning evidence before. But Ricks masterfully ties it together with some great quotes, many from current and former U.S. military personnel. Here's a sample from a senior U.S. military intelligence officer:
The difference between Tommy Franks and Tehran, he said grimly, was that "the Iranians had a good Phase IV plan."Many books will be written about the American adventure in Iraq. Fiasco may well be the standard against which they are judged. I highly recommend it.
Friday, October 06, 2006
Parents, warn your children . . .
|No Boundaries for the GOP
Psychologists would call it a problem of boundaries.
Republicans just don't seem to have any.
They see nothing wrong with invading and occupying a sovereign nation that poses no threat to America.
They see nothing wrong with using their positions as elected public servants to line their own pockets with cash.
And they can't resist putting the squeeze on teenagers who happen to work for them as Congressional pages.
These are sick people. This is why we need more behavioral health services in our federal prisons -- to treat these very sick Republicans who truly do belong there.
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Republicans just don't seem to have any.
They see nothing wrong with invading and occupying a sovereign nation that poses no threat to America.
They see nothing wrong with using their positions as elected public servants to line their own pockets with cash.
And they can't resist putting the squeeze on teenagers who happen to work for them as Congressional pages.
These are sick people. This is why we need more behavioral health services in our federal prisons -- to treat these very sick Republicans who truly do belong there.
