Why Oh Why Are We Ruled by These Idiots? (Yet Another Bushies-in-Iraq Edition)
Larry Diamond is hyper-shrill. From Liberals Against Terrorism:
http://www.liberalsagainstterrorism.com/drupal/?q=node/1498/print&PHPSESSID=b38d8166f4e64a35faa4c5b455868494: I just picked up a copy of Larry Diamond's new book, Squandered Victory.... I've only read the first four chapters, but those are packed with observations and anecdotes that I haven't seen elsewhere. Highly recommended.
One story that really got me was the tale of former ambassador to Yemen Barbara Bodine suggesting to Rumsfeld in March of 2003 that it would behoove the Bush administration to develop a plan to pay Iraqi civil servants. Rumsfeld replied that American taxpayers would never go for it and that he was not concerned if they were paid for several weeks or even months; if they rioted in the streets in protest, he said, the US could use such an eventuality as leverage to get the Europeans to pick up the tab. Stunning, no?...
As Daniel Davies wrote two and a half years ago:
Can anyone... give me one single example of something with the following three characteristics:
- It is a policy initiative of the current Bush administration.
- It was significant enough in scale that I'd have heard of it (at a pinch, that I should have heard of it).
- It wasn't in some important way completely f***** up during the execution?
Impeach George W. Bush. Impeach Richard Cheney. Do it now.
