Wake Me When Something Important Happens
While it may not have a coherent energy policy, give the Bush administration credit for at least having a policy of unending energy--the better to wear down the rest of the country who, by visual evidence, is mightly struggling with obesity and laziness. How else to explain the collective yawn and slumber that greets each new outrage that is foisted upon the masses?
Exhibit 1,264 on the ever expanding list is the recently released, but suspiciously overdue, latest report on the massive intelligence failures that were used to justify the imperialistic and deadly march into Iraq and beyond. To this we first won't dwell on the slight of hand the administration performed to switch the debate from Al-Qaeda's attack on our soil to the supposed threat that the evil and decadent Saddam Hussein posed to these shores. Of course, we already knew that Saddam was an unmitigated abuser of basic rights. But we also knew, didn't we, that Saddam's greedy insticts manifested itself more in the form of an incessant need to build 10 more summer homes in and around Baghdad than in a need to control the world, or even his little corner of it. Like a pale imitation of Michael Corleone, whom he admired, Saddam spent most of his time since the first Gulf War skimming the profits from the United Nation's oil for food program, as if it were the Tropicana. But he did so more as part of a 10-year plan to encrust his bed sheets in diamonds than he did to arm his zombie-like followers, if the ease with which we went through Iraq is any barometer (and it is).
While this seemed obvious to even George Sr., who eschewed a further drive into Iraq when he had a better chance and more justification, by the time this administration worked its magic on us, we were simply worn out to challenge by the onslaught from damn near everyone in the administration but the pool that Saddam was sitting on anything more elaborate than a gold-plated toilet. But for those few brave soles who could stay awake, we watched as the administration pulled out its trump card, hidden in its ever-lengthening sleeve. Using the likes of hatchet men like Tom DeLay and Bill Frist, they labeled them "unpatriotic." And here I thought hunting for the traitors among us had died with McCarthy.
Now of course comes that prickly report, well into the third year of our occupation of Iraq--an occupation that has brought untold heartbreak and grief on thousands of families across the land--that essentially concludes, "oops." While it is more likely that Jessica Simpson will get admitted to Mensa than it is for the country (let alone the world) to get an apology from the Bush administration for this colossal screw-up, the least they could do is pretend they're sorry. Instead, and not surprisingly, we get the kind of spin that makes Michael Jackson's handlers sound positively candid by comparison. Rather than be embarrased (for which it has no such capacity), this administration sees the report as vindication for their claim that "hey, we got bad info too and it wasn't our fault." They feign frustration while hoping that we won't notice that they are responsible in the first instance for getting the right information or that it was their own brand of reverse engineering of the intelligence gathering process that created this mess in the first place.
The report claims that no one in the administration influenced the intelligence process. While that calls for a "fill in your own punch line here" sort of conclusion, isn't the real trick all in how you ask the question? And does anyone really think that anyone in the administration ever asked an objective question in their lives? To our "patriotic" friends on the right, there is a difference between a question that asks for the status of Iraq's arms capabilities and one that asks how soon can we expect Iraq to launch its weapons of mass destruction.
But lest anyone think that this report will make any meaningful difference, keep in mind that there no credible exit strategy from Iraq has been articulated and the administration has already begun laying the ground work for their next excellent adventure--target Iran--with even less intelligence or understanding of any potential threat they might impose beyond bad fashion. If the hallmark of our foreign policy is trust but verify, we too should demand that of this administration. But that appears unlikely. They just plain have more energy than we do and, frankly, whatever we have left is being consumed trying to determine the next American Idol.
Exhibit 1,264 on the ever expanding list is the recently released, but suspiciously overdue, latest report on the massive intelligence failures that were used to justify the imperialistic and deadly march into Iraq and beyond. To this we first won't dwell on the slight of hand the administration performed to switch the debate from Al-Qaeda's attack on our soil to the supposed threat that the evil and decadent Saddam Hussein posed to these shores. Of course, we already knew that Saddam was an unmitigated abuser of basic rights. But we also knew, didn't we, that Saddam's greedy insticts manifested itself more in the form of an incessant need to build 10 more summer homes in and around Baghdad than in a need to control the world, or even his little corner of it. Like a pale imitation of Michael Corleone, whom he admired, Saddam spent most of his time since the first Gulf War skimming the profits from the United Nation's oil for food program, as if it were the Tropicana. But he did so more as part of a 10-year plan to encrust his bed sheets in diamonds than he did to arm his zombie-like followers, if the ease with which we went through Iraq is any barometer (and it is).
While this seemed obvious to even George Sr., who eschewed a further drive into Iraq when he had a better chance and more justification, by the time this administration worked its magic on us, we were simply worn out to challenge by the onslaught from damn near everyone in the administration but the pool that Saddam was sitting on anything more elaborate than a gold-plated toilet. But for those few brave soles who could stay awake, we watched as the administration pulled out its trump card, hidden in its ever-lengthening sleeve. Using the likes of hatchet men like Tom DeLay and Bill Frist, they labeled them "unpatriotic." And here I thought hunting for the traitors among us had died with McCarthy.
Now of course comes that prickly report, well into the third year of our occupation of Iraq--an occupation that has brought untold heartbreak and grief on thousands of families across the land--that essentially concludes, "oops." While it is more likely that Jessica Simpson will get admitted to Mensa than it is for the country (let alone the world) to get an apology from the Bush administration for this colossal screw-up, the least they could do is pretend they're sorry. Instead, and not surprisingly, we get the kind of spin that makes Michael Jackson's handlers sound positively candid by comparison. Rather than be embarrased (for which it has no such capacity), this administration sees the report as vindication for their claim that "hey, we got bad info too and it wasn't our fault." They feign frustration while hoping that we won't notice that they are responsible in the first instance for getting the right information or that it was their own brand of reverse engineering of the intelligence gathering process that created this mess in the first place.
The report claims that no one in the administration influenced the intelligence process. While that calls for a "fill in your own punch line here" sort of conclusion, isn't the real trick all in how you ask the question? And does anyone really think that anyone in the administration ever asked an objective question in their lives? To our "patriotic" friends on the right, there is a difference between a question that asks for the status of Iraq's arms capabilities and one that asks how soon can we expect Iraq to launch its weapons of mass destruction.
But lest anyone think that this report will make any meaningful difference, keep in mind that there no credible exit strategy from Iraq has been articulated and the administration has already begun laying the ground work for their next excellent adventure--target Iran--with even less intelligence or understanding of any potential threat they might impose beyond bad fashion. If the hallmark of our foreign policy is trust but verify, we too should demand that of this administration. But that appears unlikely. They just plain have more energy than we do and, frankly, whatever we have left is being consumed trying to determine the next American Idol.
posted by Gary Benz @ 3:49 PM
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