Why Oh Why Are We Ruled by These Idiots? (Yet Another Bushies-in-Iraq Edition)

Larry Diamond is hyper-shrill. From Liberals Against Terrorism:

http://www.liberalsagainstterrorism.com/drupal/?q=node/1498/print&PHPSESSID=b38d8166f4e64a35faa4c5b455868494: I just picked up a copy of Larry Diamond's new book, Squandered Victory.... I've only read the first four chapters, but those are packed with observations and anecdotes that I haven't seen elsewhere. Highly recommended.

One story that really got me was the tale of former ambassador to Yemen Barbara Bodine suggesting to Rumsfeld in March of 2003 that it would behoove the Bush administration to develop a plan to pay Iraqi civil servants. Rumsfeld replied that American taxpayers would never go for it and that he was not concerned if they were paid for several weeks or even months; if they rioted in the streets in protest, he said, the US could use such an eventuality as leverage to get the Europeans to pick up the tab. Stunning, no?...

As Daniel Davies wrote two and a half years ago:

Can anyone... give me one single example of something with the following three characteristics:

1. It is a policy initiative of the current Bush administration.
2. It was significant enough in scale that I'd have heard of it (at a pinch, that I should have heard of it).
3. It wasn't in some important way completely f***** up during the execution?

Impeach George W. Bush. Impeach Richard Cheney. Do it now.

Comments

[M.]

No comments? I guess it's too obvious for those who've already seen the light, and those who haven't aren't taking the bait.

[mtnmarty]

Why Oh Why Are We Ruled by These Idiots?

Is it it possible that you honestly don't know the answer to that question and the fact that you don't know the answer to it is a big reason that we are ruled by these idiots?

I think that the reason we are ruled by these idiots is that the median voter(white, nearing 50 , married, female, suburban, household income 55K per year, some college, non-union job, attending a protestant church 1-2 times per month)doesn't care for the alternative.

Since the Democratic contenders spend so much time with the non-white, young and aged, urban and rural, poor and rich, and union voters that the finer points of policy analysis don't always matter.

I came to this site after reading some of your very interesting economic posts but it seems that you somehow don't give political questions the same respect (i.e. that we don't know the answers in advance.)

[christo]

Let Greenspan resign first. He'd make an excellent mortgage broker. The ne plus ultra consultant to the mortgage broker industry.

[christo]

Just as in Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing, let's have a call-out of the right wing nuts,

Tom Delay

Greenspan

Rove

Tommy Frank n Beans after leaving two unsecured fields of battle now on the right wing feel good lecture circuit

Jeff Gannon

Novak

Transformation of the Army Rumsfield

Who said there's a lot of ruin in a nation?

[KevinNYC]

A good co-companion book to Larry Diamond's is Losing Iraq by David L. Phillips. If you have to buy just one, Diamond is a much better writer and Phillips could have used a better editor.

He has some choice material as well.

We flew Ahmad Chalabi into Iraq on military planes before we flew in General Gardner who was in charge of reconstruction.

When General Gardner was asked by Iraqi tribal leaders who is charge of Iraqi politics, their jaws dropped and they were horrified. We started losing the confidence of Iraqis from day one.

The OHRA and its staff was never taken seriously by the military. The OHRA's staff was stranded once when a general who missed his flight commandered their plane.

Even though the OHRA was about half-staffed, Douglas Feith continually blocked people recommended by the State Department.

General Garner and Rumsfeld thought we could set up the Iraqi government and be out of Iraq by August. Of what year he was asked? 2003 was his response.

Chalabi militia not only took over choice buildings when they entered Iraq, they also set up roadblocks and started collecting tolls.

[christo]

"they also set up roadblocks and started collecting tolls." Privatizing public works, very entrepreneurial, no wonder the Republicans love that guy.

[cl]

"Privatizing public works, very entrepreneurial, no wonder the Republicans love that guy."

Also telling is that he is a charlatan and a crook.

[RT]

The problem with Davies' request is its underlying assumption: that Bush & Co. are in some (however misguided and inept) way trying to do what's good for the country.

Since their true purpose is to perpetuate their own power and that of the GOP in order to further the looting of America by large corporate interests and rich individuals, their efficacy must be viewed in that light.

The Iraq war's purpose, in this larger schema? To win a second term for Bush, to enrich Halliburton and other favored contractors, and to generally strengthen the GOP by dividing the Dems and making them look like wimps.

They're damned good at what they do. Isn't that obvious?

[philipw2]

The Rumsfeld quote not withstanding, the US government did end up paying salaries of at least some Iraqi civil servants. I heard a lecture by a US civilian government worker at the time on the difficulties of accomplishing this given the destruction of so many records etc. I do not how many were paid or for how long this was kept up.

[Lex]

Re the Davies challenge: Um, www.donotcall.gov?