Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Bob Woodward's book is despairingly intriguing

I hadn't read any of this guy's stuff since the Nixon Debacle years. I'm sure that he is no Republican, being from the newspaper establishment. HOWEVER:
"State of Denial" shows clearly that no one was in charge as we tried to change the world in the Mid East (Iraq) post-9/11. Infighting at the highest level would have undermined any plan anyway, had there been one. Condi's and Rummy's departments had their tiffs.
"We're gonna have a plan" seemed to be "Rummy's" refrain. He got to "run" the thing (via NSPD-24) thank you, not Condi, per the insulated Bush's directive. I'm-In-Charge Rumsfeld ran the thing from his desk with a capacity resembling senility. He was never saying anything, he was just saying. Well, he meant well we might say. No, he was a complete and blinded egotist. Military men were driven nuts.
Pie-in-the-sky attitude at the highest level transformed the Iraq war into a reelection ploy with no regard for people on the ground, on any side. It's clear The Rummy Dummies really thought that we would be in and out in 6 months (liberate a welcoming population, set up a democracy and infrastructure-easy stuff), lacking adequate personnel. I'm not the smartest duck in the pond but I don't think so. I don't think so even with adequate personnel.
Obviously we can say that this book is a reporter's slanted viewpoint on paper. In retrospect however, we all knew something was wrong in the Iraq war. The prevailing wind said things will work out, don't worry. "We have chain of command chart's and wish lists, by golly". Iraqis can't read American charts! And our guys on the ground didn't need no stinking charts. They needed a plan that could work!
In all fairness, I haven't finished the book. So far is is a frighteningly disturbing view of incompetence on the part of trusted administrators.

As my own note on the Iraq debacle: I never could understand why we could not grasp in this country that we were fighting a religious war on Muslim soil. Most damaging, no one at the highest level knew it. Believe me, we will always be "Christian Devils". The war which we devised after 9/11 has not negated that opinion at all in the eyes of a suffering Middle East commoner.

Oh, there were no WMD's. You guys on the ground can take off your chemical suits now. It's 180 degrees in there you fools.

I'd like to read Woodward's piece on John Belushi. Most of his stuff is political, so that would be interesting.

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UPDATE FEB. 9:
Prefaced by my opinion that if even half of this book is true it is very frightening, while I understand that a newspaper man's perspective might be skewed. Skewed, while trying to sell a book, and just maybe honest. Anyway I was sold and scared. I think my leaders should be smarter than me. Sorry. I don't think that they should tell fart jokes around serious issues.

The second half of the book finds the lousy gift of the Iraqi situation given to the State Department. So Condi's on the hook now, not Teflon Don. I have no concerns for Rice at all, but what's Rumsfeld got on the Bush clan?
Rummy actually compared IED complications in Iraq to a bowl of fruit. To paraphrase, "Some take out no one, some take out 1 of our people, some take out 50 people. It's like apples, bananas and oranges in a bowl. Whatever." What? Not appropriate Don from your desk. DISTURBING BEHAVIOR.
The competent military man Powell was replaced by Rice at State.
The public continued to receive good old positive sayings and yarns, otherwise known as lies.
Oh yeah, finally with about 20 pages left to read, I noticed Jim Jeffrey refer to the fact that we just could wind up looking like Christian Devils. I want to know how anyone finally saw the obvious in this admin.

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