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Monday, Nov 23, 2009
Bush is running on empty -- with neocon fantasies, Chalabi's con and bright young right-wingers recruited to run Iraq.
May 25, 2004 | Burdened by his record low poll ratings, the president of the United States sought last night to convince the nation and the world that he knows what he is doing in Iraq. He succeeded only in proving that he has no new ideas and no plausible plan -- except to tear down that prison whose name he cannot pronounce.
Americans are losing confidence in President Bush, not so much because they distrust his motives, although many do, as because they question his competence. The aggressive unilateralism once regarded by Bush's political strategists as their most powerful domestic political weapon is now turned around and pointing straight at them.
For this humiliating reversal, they can thank the neoconservatives who convinced Bush that they -- and they alone -- were capable of managing foreign and defense policy that would serve American interests. So much for another major myth long promoted and cherished by the Republican right (including many figures who are now seeking distance from the increasingly discredited neocons).
Back when Bush was running for president, supporters deflected concern about his utter ignorance of foreign affairs with assurances that he would surround himself with the most brilliant, seasoned, adult advisors. Everything would turn out well so long as the people he selected to formulate and execute policy were the right choices, in every sense. Unfortunately for him, those choices have performed less adequately than advertised, their swollen self-regard notwithstanding.
From the intelligence bungling that drove the decision to invade Iraq to the arrogant diplomacy that drove away traditional U.S. allies to the false expectations and inept planning that created postwar chaos, Bush's neoconservative policy elite promoted mistaken assumptions and bad decisions. Now, as Iraqis and Americans suffer the consequences of those errors, the neocons demand more of the same failed policies, and continue to imagine that U.S. military power will salvage their misadventure.
At the moment, the neocons' blustering matters somewhat less than their blundering. The news emerging from Iraq suggests that although they regard themselves as hardheaded realists, they are in fact silly dreamers.
The police raid on the Baghdad quarters of Ahmed Chalabi, the crooked banker and former exile who hopes to become Iraq's next prime minister, was a portent of worse news. After fleecing U.S. taxpayers for more than $40 million worth of dubious "intelligence" about Saddam Hussein's weapons, Chalabi and his associates in the Iraqi National Congress are now officially suspected of abusing their privileged position for corrupt purposes. Rumors of extortion, kidnapping, blackmail and embezzlement are rife.
