Why Oh Why Are We Ruled by These Morons?
From Mark Thoma:
Economist's View: Democrats in the Closet: just received an interesting email:
From "Imperial Life in the Emerald City" by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, the former chief Washington Post correspondent in Iraq, pub date Sept. 22, p. 81:
Bumper stickers and mouse pads praising President Bush were standard desk decorations in the Republican Palace. Other than military uniforms, "Bush-Cheney 2004" T-shirts were the most common piece of clothing. (Dan Senor, Bremer's spokesman, wore one for a Thanksgiving Day "Turkey Trot" road race in the Green Zone.) CPA staffers weren't worried about employment prospects after Baghdad. "Oh, I'll just work on the campaign" - the Bush-Cheney reelection campaign - several told me.
"I'm not here for the Iraqis," one staffer said. "I'm here for George Bush." When Gordon Robison, a staffer in the Strategic Communications office, opened a care package from his mother to find a book by Paul Krugman, a liberal New York Times columnist, people around him stared. "It was like I had just unwrapped a radioactive brick," he recalled. The CPA did have a small contingent of Democrats. Most were soldiers and diplomats who, by law, could not be queried about their political leanings... The group faced regular harassment from hardcore Republicans... Their posters were either ripped from the bulletin board or defaced with pro-Republican graffiti.... One... compared being a Democrat in the Green Zone to being gay in a small town. "If you know what's good for you, you stay in the closet," he said...
It would have been nice for the American people to know the state of play in Paul Bremer's Viceroyalty in 2004, wouldn't it?
UPDATE: An observer of Rajiv Chandresakaran writes that he did tell as much of the truth about Paul Bremer's operation as his editors would allow him to, as rapidly as they would allow him to, and refers me to articles like http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A54294-2004Jun19?language=printer:
"Mistakes Loom Large as Handover Nears: Missed Opportunities Turned High Ideals to Harsh Realities," By Rajiv Chandrasekaran. Washington Post Foreign Service. Sunday, June 20, 2004; Page A01: The American occupation of Iraq will formally end this month having failed to fulfill many of its goals and stated promises intended to transform the country into a stable democracy, according to a detailed examination drawing upon interviews with senior U.S. and Iraqi officials and internal documents of the occupation authority. The ambitious, 15-month undertaking stumbled because of a series of mistakes that began with an inadequate commitment of resources and was aggravated by a misunderstanding of Iraqi politics, religion and society in occupied Iraq, these participants said....
On the eve of its dissolution, the CPA has become a symbol of American failure in the eyes of most Iraqis.... The criticism is echoed by some Americans working in the occupation. They fault CPA staffers who were fervent backers of the invasion and of the Bush administration, but who lacked reconstruction skills and Middle East experience. Only a handful spoke Arabic. Within the marble-walled palace of the CPA's headquarters inside Baghdad's protected Green Zone, there is an aching sense of a mission unaccomplished. "Did we really do what we needed to do? What we promised to do?" a senior CPA official said. "Nobody here believes that."...
Several current and former CPA officials contended that key decisions by Bremer favored a grandiose vision over Iraqi realities and reflected the perceived prerogatives of a military victor. Critics within the CPA also faulted Bremer for working to advance a conservative economic agenda of tax cuts and free trade instead of focusing on the delivery of basic services....
The CPA also lacked experienced staff. A few development specialists were recruited from the State Department and nongovernmental organizations. But most CPA hiring was done by the White House and Pentagon personnel offices, with posts going to people with connections to the Bush administration or the Republican Party. The job of reorganizing Baghdad's stock exchange, which has not reopened, was given in September to a 24-year-old who had sought a job at the White House. "It was loyalty over experience," a senior CPA official said...
The problems are not with this reporter's intelligence or insight, but with the institution for which he works.
