Conservatives: Use this thread to smear Col. Lawrence Wilkerson

Wilkerson, former chief-of-staff to Powell, spilled his guts to the New America Foundation. Some highlights (i'll even bold my favorites for ya) [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]:

Decisions that send men and women to die, decisions that have the potential to send men and women to die, decisions that confront situations like natural disasters and cause needless death or cause people to suffer misery that they shouldn’t have to suffer, domestic and international decisions, should not be made in a secret way.

That’s a very, very provocative statement, I think....But fundamental decisions about foreign policy should not be made in secret. Let me tell you the...practical reasons why it’s true.

....When you cut the bureaucracy out of your decisions and then foist your decisions on us out of the blue on that bureaucracy, you can’t expect that bureaucracy to carry your decision out very well and, furthermore, if you’re not prepared to stop the feuding elements in that bureaucracy, as they carry out your decision, you’re courting disaster.

....What I saw was a cabal between the Vice President of the United States, Richard Cheney, and the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, on critical issues that made decisions that the bureaucracy did not know were being made.

Read George Packer’s book The Assassin’s [inaudible] if you haven’t already. George Packer, a New Yorker, reporter for The New Yorker, has got it right. I just finished it and I usually put marginalia in a book but, let me tell you, I had to get extra pages to write on.

And I wish, I wish I had been able to help George Packer write that book. In some places I could have given him a hell of a lot more specifics than he’s got. But if you want to read how the Cheney Rumsfeld cabal flummoxed the process, read that bo

And, of course, there are other names in there, Under Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith, whom most of you probably know Tommy Franks said was stupidest blankety blank man in the world. He was. Let me testify to that. He was. Seldom in my life have I met a dumber man.

[JackWhite]

You're working on the assumption that all conservatives support all the decisions of this administration. If you look farther down, you will see an entire thread of people who are generally right-of-center criticizing the Administration.

[ QUOTE ]
You're working on the assumption that all conservatives support all the decisions of this administration. If you look farther down, you will see an entire thread of people who are generally right-of-center criticizing the Administration.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not at all. I'm working on the belief that certain conservatives, including some on this board, will smear anyone who does not follow their preferred narrative about the rationale for and conduct of the war. Is that really disputable?

[adios]

Probably in posting the link somehow you made an error. A valid link would be mucho appreciated.

[El Barto]

Who cares what a guy out of the loop says? Bush makes our foreign policy not the UN or the UN-sympathisers in the State department.

Now when I created the Attack Louis Freeh in this thread thread, it was a discussion of what the President was doing, not some out of the loop flunky.

The day we surrender our foreign policy to the UN will be the day America's greatness is over. That sounds like something Hillary would do to us.

[ QUOTE ]
Probably in posting the link somehow you made an error. A valid link would be mucho appreciated.

[/ QUOTE ]

My apologies. Here you go.

[adios]

Thanks, I read the piece. I wonder what Condi would say and if she feels like she's not part of the process? Anyway I think Powell and Bush just didn't see eye to eye on a lot of issues. With that said perhaps the Miers nomination is revealing in that it reveals the decision making process within the administration and it's flaws. A process that has led to an unmitigated political disaster that could have easily been avoided IMO. I think it also gives credibility to Wilkens points. Wilkens is obviously an intelligent person that is someone we should probably listen to and take note of.

[ QUOTE ]
Who cares what a guy out of the loop says? Bush makes our foreign policy not the UN or the UN-sympathisers in the State department.

[/ QUOTE ]

UN-sympathizers? Jesus! You make it seem akin to Commie- or Nazi-sympathizers. What's a sympathizer? Someone that agrees with the central tenets of the UN? Most of the world?

[jt1]

[ QUOTE ]
The day we surrender our foreign policy to the UN will be the day America's greatness is over. That sounds like something Hillary would do to us.


[/ QUOTE ]


Why should anyone care about America's greatness? Would you or I or anyone else have a worse life if America was just another prosperous country like Sweeden or Holland or Canada?

I choose not to view the world like I view the NFL where competition is the whole point of the enterprise, where there can only be one champion and for every contest there must be a winner and a looser. Do you believe that God will reward Americans in Heaven if we remain the worlds lone superpower? I don't see any other reason for caring about America's greatness. You must believe it benifits us somehow.