← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · edward gibbon
Thread ID: 17992 | Posts: 3 | Started: 2005-04-27
2005-04-27 19:39 | User Profile
[QUOTE] from MilitaryWeek.com
[CENTER][B][I]Without Reservation[/I][/B][/CENTER]
A biweekly column by Karen Kwiatkowski, Lt. Col. USAF (ret.)
posted 22 April 05 [CENTER] [SIZE=4][B][I]A Bolton from the Bush[/I][/B][/CENTER][/SIZE]
Republican Senator Chuck Hagel has some concerns about George W. Bush's pick for UN Ambassador. He says, "I have been troubled with more and more allegations, revelations, coming out about his style, his method of operation."
John Bolton, of course, is a very different man than Chuck Hagel. In theory, both are members of the Republican Party. The similarities stop there.
Hagel served in Vietnam, and was the recipient of two Purple Hearts for sustaining injury in combat. [I]Bolton, like most members of the current administration, has never worn a military uniform[/I].
Prior to his election to the Senate, Chuck Hagel worked in private industry and co-founded what later became a successful publicly traded company. Bolton is a lawyer, who has spent his adult life in Washington law firms, think tanks and in what is loosely referred to as "public service."
There are a variety of reports now circulating that Bolton has abused subordinates that failed to adhere to his desired party line. It must have been frustrating to be John Bolton in the State Department, what with all those communist, ... I mean, terrorist sympathizers at Foggy Bottom. He'll love the United Nations, I'm sure.
It is refreshing to hear Senator Hagel express his concern over this particular Bush appointee. Bolton's narrow-mindedness and vindictiveness does not inspire confidence. However, it is increasingly typical of those the current American president elevates to ever higher levels of "public service." Bolton, from all reports, [I][B]is not only an ideologue, but an intolerant coward. Bullies usually are.[/B][/I] Yet, bullying incompetence seems increasingly emblematic of the Bush administration.
Not long ago President Bush granted the Medal of Freedom to his best "yes" man, George Tenet, [I]the most incompetent CIA Director we've seen in decades[/I]. Tenet succeeded in producing the intelligence Bush wanted, damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead. Most importantly, with few exceptions, he effectively suppressed dissent.
Bush retained Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, the [I]man solely responsible for the most idiotically planned deployment of Guard and Reserve forces, not to mention the active duty, in American history[/I]. Iraq is no Grenada, and yet the level of experimentation and casual attitudes by top civilian planners demonstrates that ââ¬â tragically for the tens of thousand dead Iraqis, over 1500 dead Americans, and over 20,000 wounded soldiers and Marines ââ¬â they simply could not tell the difference.
Rumsfeld, in an example that is truly Boltonesque, happily oversaw the charging, demotion and early retirement of his worst legal critic in the Pentagon, former Major General, now retired Colonel Thomas Fiscus. Fiscus made the mistake of disagreeing with his boss on the proper role of torture in the care and feeding of uncharged, un-represented detainees in the various U.S. military holding centers from Guantanamo to Kabul.
The list goes on. [I]Condoleeza Rice [/I] simultaneously served [I]as the most charming and least competent of U.S. National Security Advisors[/I]. She managed poorly at the NSC, and apparently barely escaped charges of perjury before the Congress, based on her clearly perjured statements before the Congress in the aftermath of 9-11.
Bolton, joins Tenet, Rumsfeld, Rice, and of course Paul Wolfowitz, in being rewarded by awards and appointments or nominations to more prestigious administration positions.
Abe Shulsky's boss and Doug Feith's minion, former Under Secretary of Defense Bill Luti oversaw the Office of Special Plans. Luti has also received his reward in Bush. The OSP, while now defunct and widely criticized by Congress for its misdeeds, was certainly effective in spreading lies in advance of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Luti has now been elevated to the President's Security staff. He works for the mediocre but oh-so-loyal Stephen Hadley and a pardoned perjurer from another era, Eliot Abrams.
When I worked in Luti's office a few years back, during the run-up to the falsely justified invasion of Iraq, I had the opportunity to hear and see this guy demean no less than three active or retired four star military flag officers. The presidentially appointed [I]Luti was quite open about his contempt for General Tony Zinni, General Colin Powell, and Admiral Tony Fargo[/I]. The fact that Luti publicly and casually demeaned these individuals in the ultimate safe zone ââ¬â behind their backs ââ¬â told me all I needed to know about his courage and his character.
[COLOR=Red][I]But much more than that, it illustrates something important about the courage and character of George W. Bush.[/I][/COLOR]
This Bolton from the Bush may be a long needed wakeup call. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney habitually reward cowardice and incompetence. They continually place political loyalty above ethics and loyalty to country.
Senator Hagel recognizes this trend. I'd like to think Congress will soon begin to do something about it. é 2005 Karen Kwiatkowski[/QUOTE]I wish I could see a way out, but I do not. There must be a change of administration before these lunatics are ousted.
2005-04-27 20:56 | User Profile
Not long ago President Bush granted the Medal of Freedom to his best "yes" man, George Tenet, the most incompetent CIA Director we've seen in decades. Tenet succeeded in producing the intelligence Bush wanted, damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead. Most importantly, with few exceptions, he effectively suppressed dissent.
The Bush administration marks the beginning of totalitarianism in America, first with the Orwellian "Patriot Act," then the special committee on "anti-Semitic" thought crime, and Bush caps it all off with a corrupt, nepotistic cronyism that would put Brezhnev to shame, medals and all.
2005-04-27 23:56 | User Profile
The truly scary thing about this is that it's been going on so routinely, so unstoppably, one becomes numb to it over time. Even bloodthirsty lunacy and incompetence becomes matter-of-fact when it's s.o.p. long enough.
If there is one urgent lesson to be drawn from this, it's that far too much power is now conferred upon the Presidency. There will likely be 100,000 needless dead by the time we hit '08...if the total's not there already....all on the 'whim' of a man too stubborn and stupid to realize he's never had a whim that someone didn't first whisper into his ear. And with a stroke of a pen, he can officially silence the sort of dissent that the Fourth Estate is currently too co-opted to bother uttering, either very often or very loud.
But I fear we won't draw that lesson...and that, come '08, the American public will choose sides in a predictably pitched battle over who will next rule us with the powers of a king. Whichever way the country leans in three years, it will be under the aegis of someone with more power than any one man should ever be granted.