You Gotta Have Feith
EmailChris Hitchens says forget Scott McClellan’s book, the book about the Iraq war that should be read is Douglas Feith’s War and Decision: Inside the Pentagon at the Dawn of the War on Terrorism:
"As undersecretary of defense for policy, Feith was one of those most intimately involved in the argument about whether to and, if so, how to put an end to the regime of Saddam Hussein. His book contains notes made in real time at the National Security Council, a trove of declassified documentation, and a thoroughly well-organized catalog of sources and papers and memos. Feith has also done us the service of establishing a Web site where you can go and follow up all his sources and check them for yourself against his analysis and explanation. There is more of value in any chapter of this archive than in any of the ramblings of McClellan."
Among the stunning suggestions from Feith’s book, Hitch writes, are the admissions that there "was no rational reason to suspect a continuing Iraqi WMD threat. Feith’s citations from the Duelfer Report alone are stunning in their implications, that alternatives to war were never discussed and that the administration was out to ‘get’ Saddam Hussein from the start, that the advocates of regime change hoped and indeed planned to anoint Ahmad Chalabi as a figurehead leader in Baghdad, and that there was no consideration given to postwar planning."
Chalabi? Really?
- jpt
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Another day, another cycle with virtually no coverage of John McCain. I’m not sure what they teach at Ivy League schools these days, but surely they try to teach that journalists report the news, they don’t create it. I would imagine there are still some profs (or lecturers) who teach J-students that their role is to be unbiased. That would mean that you report on both political parties. As if you were unbiased.
So, where’s the coverage? John McCain thinks Basra is “under control of the Iraqis.” He just doesn’t mention which Iraqi forces are in control of Basra and almost all of the Iraqi oil. They aren’t the ones alliied with us. Wonder why gas prices are so high? That neocon plan didn’t work so well.
Posted by: mara | June 3, 2008, 2:26 pm 2:26 pm
Thanks for reporting this.
Republicans thought Nixon hurt their party. The next year will spell some very dark days for the Republican party.
McCain was nominated because people thought he was different from Bush/Cheney.
Now McCain keeps talking about fighting a war that should have never been fought.
McCain wanted Washington to send hundreds of thousands more troops into Vietnam. He was very outspoken against Washington.
Unfortunately, McCain fails to learn from mistakes.
America does not want the Iraq war, just like we did not want the Vietnam war.
Posted by: Dan | June 3, 2008, 2:37 pm 2:37 pm
“Among the stunning suggestions from Feith’s book, Hitch writes…”
Erm, Jack, Hitch said:
“.. will make it difficult if not impossible for people to go on claiming that… There was no rational reason to suspect…”
He sees Feith as totally backing up his position.
No matter that no-one ever said that there was “no reason” to think that Saddam had WMD, merely that the Bush administration overplayed the intelligence; that no-one ever said “alternatives to war were never discussed”, merely that they weren’t given proper consideration, etc.
Also Douglas Feith is about as trustworthy as a real-estate agent with a crack habit.
Posted by: Rocky | June 3, 2008, 2:38 pm 2:38 pm
McCain is wrong on BOTH the economy and Iraqi.
I can’t find one major issue McCain is actually “right” on
Posted by: Vanessa | June 3, 2008, 2:40 pm 2:40 pm
Geevil
It’s about Iraq AND the economy stupid.
McCain loses on both.
Posted by: dl | June 3, 2008, 2:49 pm 2:49 pm
Most major media outlets won’t review Feith’s book because they don’t want to hear the truth.
Even Andrew Sullivan, the big Obama supporter and Bush hater just said on his blog that the surge is working and that Obama better come around.
Christopher Hitchens is right. But it’s telling how the liberal Vanity Fair (the most anti Bush magazine out there) won’t let him do his monthly column about it. He always has to write about another subject.
Amazing what the liberals DON’T WANT you to know.
Posted by: Jo | June 3, 2008, 2:58 pm 2:58 pm
I remember reading why the Administration liked Chalabi. It was because he gave simple, yes/no, optimistic answers. Other Iraqis gave nuanced answers about what would/could happen post-invasion. Chalibi looked Team Bush straight in the eye and said “sweets and flowers”. Same reason Team Bush believed George “Slam Dunk” Tenet. They only do ‘simple’.
Posted by: Tom J | June 3, 2008, 2:59 pm 2:59 pm
Was Carter a neocon? I recall gas prices were high during his miserable reign as well.
Posted by: Jo | June 3, 2008, 2:59 pm 2:59 pm
So let me get this straight. A war is waged because George W. lied to the American people. (common knowledge)
So now McCain wants Obama to go to Iraq to see how well we’re doing in the war that George wanted. Why? So he can see for himself and truly understand how STUPID McCain and George W are . . . . now I get it.
Posted by: DAVID NH | June 3, 2008, 3:44 pm 3:44 pm
Hitchens says the opposite of what is implied in this piece.
He introduces the point (above) with the following:
—
***** [it] will make it difficult if not impossible for people to go on claiming that, for instance:****
1. There was no rational reason to suspect a continuing Iraqi WMD threat. Feith’s citations from the Duelfer Report alone are stunning in their implications.”
—
Posted by: MayBee | June 3, 2008, 4:34 pm 4:34 pm
And I do not think George Bush lied. Unlike a lot of the Bush bashers who were either drunk, stoned or in gradeschool back in the 90′s I can actually remember Bill Clinton on TV telling us that Saddam not only had wmd, he would use them. It was not an opinion, it was a guarantee.
Posted by: Terrye | June 3, 2008, 4:54 pm 4:54 pm