(L. Paul Bremer receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom)The latest in a long line of twisting-in-the-wind former Bushies?
L. Paul Bremer. He of the less than distinguished batting average in Iraq as head of the Coalition Provisional Authority. Or, as I prefer to call the CPA, the group that came in and fired all the career diplomats with any experience rebuilding countries, and installed instead an army of loyal, if grossly under-qualified, Christian-y Bush disciples.
One of Bremer's more genius early moves, and one which was not shared with Colin Powell, Richard Armitage, or (so they claim) the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was to disband the Iraqi army. According to many working in Iraq prior to Bremer's decision, the Iraqi army had been standing down, and in negotiations with "the coalition of the willing" to re-form and to cooperate with the rebuilding and the establishment of some much-needed order. But when BushCo decided that all members of Hussein's political party need not apply (all of them Sunnis), the CPA cut them loose, fully armed and pissed as hell and well aware of where Saddam kept all the spare armament that was laying around Iraq unguarded.
And thus was born the insurgency.
You know, so few things are predictable in this upside-down, topsy-turvy world of ours, and of course I know that hindsight don't need no lasik, and yet....
The insurgency, predictable? Yeah, I think I would put that in the category of, oh, night following day, or spring following winter, or even the ultimate in predictability: that BushCo will betray anyone, no matter how loyal, if they think it will deflect criticism from themselves.
Apparently, in a recent interview for a book that has yet to be released, W has been quoted as saying that our policy in Iraq was “to keep the army intact” but that it “didn’t happen.”
Or, more accurately, "Didn't happen. Heh heh."
And Mr. Bremer, unwilling to provide the sole set of shoulders for that load of blame, called up a reporter at the New York Times and said “This didn’t just pop out of my head."
And he produced letters from W to that effect. Sort of. That is, the letters detail Mr. Bremer's plans, and our great leader's reply was “Your leadership is apparent...You have quickly made a positive and significant impact. You have my full support and confidence.”
Sooooo....am I the only one who looks at W's reply and thinks that maybe he never read Bremer's letter?
Yeah, I didn't think so.
10 comments:
That gurgling sound you hear is all the stupidity in the universe draining into the White House. I admit that I'm a partisan, but even so, I feel as if everybody must realize by now what a horrendous disaster this administration has been.
Larry: If you haven't read the NYT piece about Jack Goldsmith, you should check it out. He's a real hard-core conservative, but he argues in his new book that by pursuing power so stupidly, Bush has actually weakening the presidency for future office-holders.
Chris: Bizarro White House? That reminds me of that brilliant SNL sketch with Al Gore delivery that address to the nation as if he had been elected in 2000:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=AYuqoKxRhMg
Vikki, I was just thinking of that Gore appearance on SNL! Great stuff.
I once pitied Bremer. Until I learned a little bit about him and realized he saw Iraq as one big payday for his corporate buddies.
They deserve each other.
Hey... is he doing the Merkel shrug?
That Dubya is all hands.
I don't know what to say that hasn't already been said over and over and over.
We know they're rotten apples, the whole bunch of them. It's going to take twenty years to fix what these ass-bags did...
I have a picture I clipped from the front page of the New York Times a few years ago-- I had it magnetted to my refrigerator for a long time-- it was a picture of Bremer and Tennant recieving the Medal of Freedom. I was reminded of Tom Lehrer's comment that irony died the day that Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
The strangest part about all of this is the you the Americans are killing and hurting these same Iraqi people on a daily basis and you take this one innocent person and parade him before the public and press as gesture of goodwill?
When are you going to help the hundreds of thousands that you have displaced get back on their feet again?
When will you discontinue the senseless killings for the oil reserves ?
Give me a break what you are proposing to do for this young man is but a drop in the ocean of what you should be doing because of the heartache you have bestowed on the Iraqi people this effort is but a token of what you should be doing if you were really serious and not making the most of the camera and the lights and the print media you would have hundreds of ones like this young man attented to by American doctors who are willing to donate their time and to give of it freely to restore some normal to life for these trouble people.
Anon: I am sympathetic, but I think your comment belongs to a different post in a blog far, far away. Good luck, buddy.
well, I guess at least SOME people will be free when W declares "marshall law! heh heh! 'Cause Ah'm the Marshall!"
Look at these clowns: Bremer, William Tenet, Charlton Heston, Nancy Reagan!, Tommy Franks. On the official PMoF site, under Idiot's list, the text begins:
The Bush Administration “Dream Team”:
Highly Qualified, More Diverse Than Any Other Presidency.
Bush has some of the most respected politicians and military leaders in the country.
Who writes this shit?
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