Matt Yglesias muses on the silliness of dressing up an unnecessary and badly planned war as a “moral” decision.
Now that I think about it, it has been a while since anyone crowed about closing Saddam’s torture chambers.
***Update***
Speaking of genius neocons and the war they screwed up, this bit from Robert Baer’s superb book on Iran (more on that later) underlines the blinkered mentality of the time. The interview between Baer and Douglas Feith took place during the 2000 presidential election.
Listening to Feith, I wondered why he wasn’t more skeptical of Chalabi, a lofelong exile who hadn’t seen Baghdad since he was a child. More to the point, I wondered why Feith wasn’t more suspicious about Chalabi’s ties to Iran. In the nineties, Chalabi had traveled through Tehran to get into Kurdish northern Iraq. He also had unexplained ties to Iran’s hard-line Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, one reason the Clinton administration dropped contact with him.
I pointed this out to Feith, telling him how in 1994 and 1995, Chalabi had turned over Iraqi National Congress houses and cars to Iranian intelligence, which then used them to stage the assassinations of Iranian dissidents living in the part of Iraq Saddam controlled. Didn’t this sound suspicious to Feith? And that wasn’t to mention Iran’s long-term interests in Iraq, with or without Chalabi. I also wondered why Feith couldn’t draw the obvious parallels between Iraq and Lebanon, which Iran was then effectively annexing.The longer Feith didn’t respond, the more I wondered whether he thought I was making all this up, trying for some inexplicable reason to undermine Chalabi. I told Feith that if George Bush won the presidency, he’d be in a position to confirm everything that I’d just told him.
At that, Feith stood abruptly and thanked me for my visit.
“Ahmad Chalabi will be a wonderful leader of Iraq,” he said firmly, before showing me out and closing the door behind me.
MR Bill
Well, I’m still agape at the odious David "Excess of Weasels" Frum’s remark to Rachel Maddow that she should have Paul Wolfowitz on her show…
I mean, in that alternate universe where Wolfowitz wasn’t listened to, things are much better. President Gore is having a rough time from the Right selling the necessary things to stop global warming, but hey..
The Grand Panjandrum
I can’t rationally discuss the rat-fuckers in the neocon movement.
kid bitzer
oh jesus. we got so played by the iranians. so, so played.
if george bush had been handpicked by the iranians and al qaeda to advance their agendas, he could not have done it more successfully.
in fact, he could not have done it at all–the iranians hated al qaeda, and vice versa; they never could have agreed on how to train their mole.
and yet, bush actually managed to serve both masters, and make them better off at the end of eight years than they were at the start. both of them. even though they hate each other.
he really is a uniter.
Comrade Jake
@MR Bill:
There’s zero probability Wolfy has the balls to show up on Maddow’s show, so it’s a moot point. Rachel pretty much hit Frum with a sledgehammer on that one, pointing out how she’s been at pains to get the McCain campaign to provide even one surrogate to come on.
Bobzim
So….was Feith a tool or the hand that wields it? Seriously…I’m not sure which.
Comrade Jake
Bush’s presidency does make a little bit of sense if you believe he’s been a Manchurian candidate for the Iranians.
TheOtherMikey
What did Tommy Franks call Feith–"the effing stupidest guy on the face of the earth?"
MattM
Somebody hasn’t watched yesterday’s Bloggingheads with perpetual asshat Christopher Hitchens…
The Other Steve
I wonder if McCain intends to turn us over to the Vietnamese?
SGEW
No, no, no. Allow me to reiterate my theory:
In 2001, President Bush looked into Vladimir Putin’s eyes and "saw his soul." Since then, who has personally had the most favorable rise to power in the world? Vladimir Putin. Oil revenues, consolidation of political power, allegiences with China and Iran, expansion of military might, and a nice little hot war to rile up the people.
I’m telling you: Putin hypnotized Bush on June 15th, 2001, and we’re all dancing to his secret plan.
The Other Steve
Was he drunk?
SGEW
Of course! We are talking about Hitchens, after all. He’s at his best when he’s totally soused (see his eulogy for Falwell, for instance).
dslak
You’d better get used to it. Those bastards kiss ass like no other, and people in power love getting their asses kissed.
Once the GOP ship goes down, they’ll attach themselves to the asses of any Democrats in power who will listen, just like they did during the Clinton administration. They’ll never go away: there’s nothing else they can do, and their positions at think tanks will be going to out-of-power Congressmen and Bush lackeys.
SGEW
Oh, and speaking of the rank immorality of the Neocons, I hope everyone had a chance to read WaPo’s latest torture memo scoop:
I will not forgive the Obama administration if they don’t prosecute these people.
Napoleon
The Neocons are profoundly immoral and dishonest people. I rarely will make such a sweeping generalization about a group of people, but I can not honestly think of one single one of them this would not apply to.
As to Robert Baer, over the weekend, or perhaps it was the weekend before, I listened to a podcast of him being interviewed by Terry Gross (so it was around 50 minutes long). It was very good and he really had a chance to describe what is going on with Iran and what he believes should be done. I recommend the interview for those interested in the subject and if the book is anything like the interview it would be a worth while read.
Notorious P.A.T.
@TheOtherMikey:
Yes. Yes he did.
Tsulagi
That was because for Feith, Wolfie, Cheney, and the other retarded neocons vying for the Stupidest Fucker on the Planet title, Chalabi was their Harriet Miers. He told them they were pretty, really smart, and drew happy smiley faces on their brilliant “plans” for the ME. He was the Arab guy validating their really smartness.
Have wondered how much of that up to $11B in cash bricks CPA couldn’t account for got into Chalabi’s pockets. Knowing the crowd he was working with, can just see him telling them “I can secretly buy off Sistani for a cheap $1B.” They’d fall for it.
Fwiffo
Ahmed Chalabi is an Iranian spy who, in the style of Gríma Wormtongue, whispered sweet nothings into the ears of the most powerful people in Washington. Why he’s not swinging at the end of a rope is one of the world’s great mysteries.
Comrade Dread
Ditto. Except to say, I’d really like to see them all put in stocks in the capitol mall daily until America tires of throwing rotten fruit at them.
timb
SGEW, I fear you will quickly be disillusioned by the Obama administration. There is NO way they will prosecute people. What we have to hope for (beside the hope that the left wing Dems won’t shoot the centrist Dems and bring back Republicans in 2010 or 2012) is that Obama repudiates all these Executive orders and opinions allowing this kind of crap AND will sign legislation to stop it in the future.
Even though I have an Obama sign in the ol’ front yard, I have huge doubts about his desire or willingness to fight political battles from 2004 or 2005. He already has us…
Evinfuilt
Reading all of this, its nice to remember if McCain gets in, this continues.
Charlie Black lobbied for Chalabi (big money lobbying)
Charlie Black is the Chief Campaign Adviser for McCain
MobiusKlein
Prosecute? Don’t forget the power of the pardon. The White House will be papered to the attic with pardon papers.
They have a new gun that shoots bullets with the pardon pre-printed on it. (Ok, I made that one up.)
Paul in KY
Doug Feith didn’t give a shit what the deal was with Chalabbi. His mission was to get us to depose Saddam for Israel.
Mission accomplished from his point of view. That’s why he always looks so smug when you see him on a TV show.
JRosen
On his last day in office, GWB will pardon everybody. Then 10 minutes before his time, he will resign and Cheney will become President and pardon him. Then he will go to his new home in Dallas (he ranch will be sold if somebody can be found to buy it) and write his memoirs. Or not.
Phoenix Woman
Here’s the deal: Chalabi, the Great Grifter who took down the Petra Bank of Jordan, knew that in order to get the US on board with attacking Iraq and setting him up as the Henri Petain of Vichy Baghdad, he had to go through the PNAC Platoon first — and that meant getting Israel’s Likud Party, for whom prominent Bushie Doug Feith of the Office of Special Plans used to work, on board as believing that blowing up Saddam would somehow make Israel safer. (Look at the various names of the PNAC Platoon and see how many of them, like Feith, are also well-known in Israeli right-wing circles.)