Digby points out another bit of Feith-related fun. When Bush insisted on December 31, 2002,
Again, I hope this Iraq situation will be resolved peacefully. One of my New Year’s resolutions is to work to deal with these situations in a way so that they’re resolved peacefully.
…he was lying through his teeth. Feith:
Among the disclosures made by Feith in “War and Decision,” scheduled for release next month by HarperCollins, is Bush’s declaration, at a Dec. 18, 2002, National Security Council meeting, that “war is inevitable.”
Friendly fire accident? Did Feith mean to contradict his political patron? I suppose that after sevenish years of reflexive mendacity it gets hard to say anything at all without contradicting one fib or another. Anyway, we’re not exactly breaking new ground with this. Just a helpful reminder why only 17-20% of Americans still don’t regret electing George H.W.’s lesser son.
(*) fucking stupidest book on the face of the Earth. Hat tip to Gen. Tommy Franks.
Jake
I move that “Lying through his Feith,” become the descriptive phrase for when a Bush lackey accidentally exposes Fearless Leader’s fibs.
You’re seeing Create UR pWN Reality(TM) at work. Once Feith’s book hits the streets the New Reality will be that Bush went forward boldly to fight Saddam the Islahomofascists without any sissy talk about peace or compromise.
Pb
Heh. I already knew that Bush was lying, but why should I believe anything that Doug Feith says?
Dennis - SGMM
And why 40% of Americans still believe that Saddam had WMD’s. These are the same Americans likely to believe that the Iranians’ ability to correctly pronounce the word “nuclear” means that they’re going to build The Bomb and drop it on Israel.
No one ever lost a dime by underestimating the intelligence, or the gullibility, of the American people.
Zifnab
Brainless incompetence or cowardly backstabbing?
We report, you decide.
Tsulagi
At one point, if you’d asked some in the Pentagon “If you had AIDS, would you rather be AIDS free or Wolfie/Feith free?” you’d could have gotten a pause before an answer. Franks calling one of Cheney’s retarded buttboys “the fucking stupidest guy on the face of the earth” was a polite middle-of-the-road characterization. You notice Wolfie and Feith were gone before Rummy.
HBinBoston
During the long decades of the Cold War, a group emerged who were called “defense intellectuals.” This group included some who were truly people of intellectual accomplishment and they tended to outnumber the scarier types, such as the strangelovish Herman Kahn. Now, in the post-Cold War era and with the high standards of the Bush 43 administration we have a new breed. The defense intellectual has mutated into the defense nincompoop.
Z
It is pretty pitiful to see what happened to Buckley’s conservatism. I didn’t agree with a lot of it, but I could respect its adherents as thoughtful intellectuals. No more. What a pathetic legacy Feith and crew represent!
HyperIon
slightly OT, i saw an excellent discussion of “The Commission” on cspan yesterday. the author and a very sympathetic interviewer talked at great length about the 9-11 commission and what the staffers knew that did NOT end up in the final report. good journalism in evidence.
it seems that the commission’s most striking achievement (in omission) was to soft-peddle the differences between the “stories” told by Richard Clarke and Rice. the staffers believed him.
and the determination of who (clinton or GWB) mentioned terrorism/AQ more often in public speeches was omitted because it made GWB look bad. another case of having to protect pappy bush’s dimmest bulb.
Rick Taylor
This is hardly a surprise. Anyone paying attention at the time new the administration was determined to go to war no matter what. Oddly that doesn’t seem to have included Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, or a host of others.
Of course I suppose his supporters would argue that Bush was determined to work for peace, but knew war was inevitable because Saddam wouldn’t cooperate. And when he didn’t let the inspectors in, he had to invade (yes I know he did, but Bush and Romney have both insisted that black is white and he didn’t).
Saul Goode
Timmeh..
Again I axe, haz u red it yet?
merlallen
Well, chickengeorge bush did say in 1999 that he would do something about Iraq. What did dumbfuck think he meant?