The Emerging "Neocon" Alibi on Iraq

[Granite_State]

I'm surprised it's taken this long, but the "neocon" architects of the Iraq disaster seemed to have agreed on an alibi and it is---drum roll--the "stab in the back."

Last week was the Post's story of Douglas Feith's forthcoming book; today the Times includes an essay by one of the movement's other ideologues-in-chief, Richard Perle, which lays it at the feet of, "Secretary of State Colin Powell; the national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice; and the director of central intelligence, George Tenet."

This whole process is both nauseating--it sickens me that people like Perle and Feith without the slightest shred of honor or integrity shape our nation's policy--and almost humorous as both spin like dervishes to absolve the people who most shaped the decision: the President, the Vice President, and the Secretary of Defense.

Feith's "stab in the back" theory has evolved. I heard him give a talk at AEI a few years ago where he trial ballooned the idea of blaming the military. I guess once he figured that wouldn't fly, he had to settle on the State Department and CIA. Anything, of course, but placing the responsibility where it belongs--on his desk, that of the Deputy SECDEF, the SECDEF, the VP, and POTUS.

Feith is just disgusting. Whoever pointed out the blaring "Doug Feith is a patriot" quote on his website from General Peter Pace on a SWC thread a week or two back, that was great stuff.

Perle's been an open and shut case for me since reading Charlie Wilson's War last year. He, Oliver North, and a couple of other Reagan Administration guys had some ludicrous plan to spirit Red Army defectors out of Afghanistan and use them to form a second Vlasov's Army that would bring down the USSR. The experienced CIA guys were incredulous, said it was a joke, but the plan went ahead. In the end they got two shattered conscripts who had been repeatedly raped by the mujahideen, one of whom later robbed a convenience store in Tyson's Corner. Read the book's account of it, the story is hilarious.

I'm continually amazed at how think tanks, the chattering class, Capitol Hill, and even the upper reaches of the Executive Branch are populated by folks with no earned knowledge of the real world, or often even of their subject matter. Prime case is Michael Ledeen, the neocon "Iran expert." He's never even been to Iran. And people listen to this guy!

[Tom Odom]

Fateful Choice on Iraq Army Bypassed Debate
By MICHAEL R. GORDON
Published: March 17, 2008

....The plan was outlined in a PowerPoint presentation that Douglas J. Feith, a senior aide to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, gave at a National Security Council meeting that Mr. Bush convened on March 12, eight days before the invasion began. Republican Guard units, the forces deemed most loyal to Mr. Hussein, were to be disarmed, detained and dismantled.

Ok it is now clear to me. PPT that ubiquitous mind-numbing. intellect robbing deceptively alluring means of non-communications is really to blame...

I mean when you read this, everyone had the right idea but no one could execute it. Then this guy Bremer--and he apparently had the right idea too--just went and did the wrong thing. It had to have been PPT manipulation of decisionmakers. The research on PPT manipulation is well established in think tanks in DC. Typically PPT-M shows up when briefs have bullets of 3 to 5 words that can offer different meanings to the unwary decision-maker--who everyone knows has too much to read anyway.

What me worry? (3 words meaning no worries)

Tom

[marct]

Ok it is now clear to me. PPT that ubiquitous mind-numbing. intellect robbing deceptively alluring means of non-communications is really to blame...

So it's really all Bill Gates' fault ! Got it !

[Bullmoose Bailey]

Ok it is now clear to me. PPT that ubiquitous mind-numbing. intellect robbing deceptively alluring means of non-communications is really to blame...

I mean when you read this, everyone had the right idea but no one could execute it. Then this guy Bremer--and he apparently had the right idea too--just went and did the wrong thing. It had to have been PPT manipulation of decisionmakers. The research on PPT manipulation is well established in think tanks in DC. Typically PPT-M shows up when briefs have bullets of 3 to 5 words that can offer different meanings to the unwary decision-maker--who everyone knows has too much to read anyway.

What me worry? (3 words meaning no worries)

Tom

Very funny.

Separately I feel some of you are coming to see what I've seen all along; neocon is another word for democrat

[Tom Odom]

neocon is another word for democrat

Nope.

[jkm_101_fso]

Very funny.

Separately I feel some of you are coming to see what I've seen all along; neocon is another word for democrat

Bullmoose-
Here's who we are talking about:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project...erican_Century

http://www.newamericancentury.org/

[Steve Blair]

I'm continually amazed at how think tanks, the chattering class, Capitol Hill, and even the upper reaches of the Executive Branch are populated by folks with no earned knowledge of the real world, or often even of their subject matter. Prime case is Michael Ledeen, the neocon "Iran expert." He's never even been to Iran. And people listen to this guy!

I think the real key here is no knowledge of their subject matter. I've seen people who've "been there" who have no real clue as to the history of where they've been (in other words, what was behind the "there" that they saw), and have no idea how to go about gaining that knowledge. Yet they still think they are "experts" based on their handful of trips.

We have far too many folks kicking around in these circles who don't understand even the basics of intellectual research and confuse .ppt and a few History Channel shows for real research and background.

[Tom Odom]

We have far too many folks kicking around in these circles who don't understand even the basics of intellectual research and confuse .ppt History and a few History Channel shows for real research and background.

Steve gets it, too, Marc!

[marct]

Steve gets it, too, Marc!

So many students will be disappointed if we ever started testing not using ppt and the History Channel . I mean, after all, if it's good enough for politicians and bureaucrats, what's like the problem, eh ?

Marc

Editorial note: the expression "eh?" was first popularized by Bob and Doug MacKenzie in the early 1980's. Originally, it was only used in a small stretch of Canada opposite Buffalo. The author only used it here to keep Tom happy

[Rank amateur]

Here's a new one. The "Iraq war" actually started in 1968.

when I wrote the essays that go to make up A Long Short War: The Postponed Liberation of Iraq, I was expressing an impatience with those who thought that hostilities had not really "begun" until George W. Bush gave a certain order in the spring of 2003.

Anyone with even a glancing acquaintance with Iraq would have to know that a heavy U.S. involvement in the affairs of that country began no later than 1968, with the role played by the CIA in the coup that ultimately brought Saddam Hussein's wing of the Baath Party to power.

[J Wolfsberger]

... has never been noted for sloppy thinking.

One of the problems with the anti-war crowd is that they don't seem to have had a problem with the numerous bombing raids carried out under the previous administration, or the economic sanctions. (With the exception that some seemed to think we should have lifted them once Saddam turned "Oil for Food" into "Oil for Politicians and Weapons.") On the other hand, the fact that Bush wasn't 100% correct in everything, and the occupation was bungled, makes him and the US totally evil.

A second problem, that Hitchens has spoken to before, is that they refuse to recognize the world is a better place with Saddam out of power. That, too, is always ignored.

It would be nice to lock leftist, anti war types and "Neocons" in a room. The next day we could shoot the survivors.

[Ken White]

...
It would be nice to lock leftist, anti war types and "Neocons" in a room. The next day we could shoot the survivors.

I'll even donate a few. Voila, no survivors....

[Ken White]

date isn't that far off the mark for our involvement specifically in Iraq. Hitchens engages in his usual hyperbole and provocative style but he's not totally out to lunch in that article

One can argue that Iraq was not well planned or even a good plan -- but one should have an alternative proposal for what was to be done about the steadily increasing probes from the Middle East from 1979 through 2001 other than continue to accept them with almost no reaction. Thus far, I've seen no one offer such an alternative other than 'diplomacy' and some feel-good efforts which, given the long memories and propensity for feuds in the ME would have been highly unlikely to confer even minimal success..

One can go back to the FDR and Ibn Saud conference on the return trip from Yalta and wish the US had done many things in the ME differently over the next 30 years. Not much point in that, we did what we did and the seizure of the Tehran Embassy resulted and our totally ineffectual response to that started the ball rolling. I submit diplomacy would not have stopped it. Nor will Iraq -- but Iraq did short circuit their efforts and it will have a deterrent effect provided we don't get stuck on stupid. That's far better than doing what we did from 1979 until 2001.

While no fan of Wolfotwits, Feith et.al. and while agreeing with most above on the stupidity of the Neocon ideas (and their current CYA effort -- which is pathetic but was to be expected), I've never been totally convinced that Bush adopted the Neocon mantras -- I think he realized on a gut level that it was impossible to seal the borders of the US and that something more than diplomacy was required. He simply followed some (not all) of the Neocon ideas because they made more sense than most of the alternatives. IOW, no one had a better plan.

And, five years later, I still haven't read or heard of one...

[Billy Ruffian]

It's disgusting when the rats flee a floundering ship with all their goodies securely snug in their jaws.