Jerks In Government

Jerks In Government

Tuesday, February 13, 2007 8:04 PM

Tuesday, February 13, 2007 Hour Three: Douglas Feith

Posted by Hugh Hewitt  | 6:05 PM

OK.  I listened to the interview on Fox News Sunday and in a nutshell, here is my take.  Please take into consideration that I am a cynic and have grown WAY passed sick and tired of politicians acting like the donkeys they are.

Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace (FOX)

2/14/07

 

            This interview was in regard to the recent controversy about pre-Iraq war intelligence and how it was used.

 

            Mr. Feith was asked point-blank if he was giving the GWB administration the “ammunition they wanted to go to war”.  Mr. Feith, if he wasn’t on national TV may have answered more fervently but, in a nutshell, he said, “No”.  He said that it was the way the bureaucracy works when you have several people from different offices working together.  He stated that at least two people from the Deputy Secretary’s office were working on the project as well.  The report was given to Donald Rumsfeld and he directed that the report be given to George Tenet in the CIA for collaboration.

 

            Mr. Wallace then proceeded to tell Mr. Feith that several institutions claimed that his work was faulty and wrong, those being the 911 Commission, the Inspector General of the Pentagon and the Senate Intelligence Committee.  Mr. Feith claimed that they made no such allegations because no one really read the report his section wrote or they did not read it carefully enough.  He claims that they pick and chose what they wanted to read and then drew incorrect assessments.

 

Mr. Feith said that no one ever made the claim that there was an “operational relationship” between Saddam Hussein and Al Qa’ida.  He did say that there was a “relationship” and that relationship was defined by George Tenet of the CIA.

 

Mr. Feith also went on and stated that it seems that Steve Hadley and George Tenet obviously got their wires crossed, paraphrase mine.  He said that all parties knew of his departments’ thoughts and critical analysis of the CIA and George Tenet’s logic was circular.

 

            In my assessment, this is a perfect example of CYA so prevalent in DC.  There are all too many career bureaucrats, each entity thereof sorely afraid to take a stand and take their lumps if wrong or soak in the glory if they are correct in their assessments.  Neither the left hand nor the right hand knows what is going on and this leaves ample wiggle-room and many avenues to take for the proverbial finger pointing.  Such is life in The Big Worm known as Washington, DC.

 

            From a grunt’s point of view, mainly myself, we always had a good chuckle (sarcastic overtones) when we read “critical analysis” from the intelligence people.  Their philosophy seemed to be, “We bet your life on our intelligence”.  So much of it was wrong or loosely laid out and we knew why.  Perhaps if the people collecting the intelligence data in DC were in the field, they would be more enthusiastic in the trusting of their sources and to be more careful how they place the facts, figures and suppositions into play.

 

            Finger-pointing and not accepting the consequences of one’s own actions is a cowards’ ploy.

News Review

News Review

Tuesday, February 13, 2007 1:48 AM

 OK.  Call me crazy.  I watch news shows.  And then I write about that which I think I heard.  Such is the case here.  I watch all the news shows.  Some make me laugh my butt off what with all  the stupidity they have oozing from every socialistic orifice they have.  It is kind of funny to watch them just FREAK out when someone disgress with the host!  Good grief!  What ever happened to tolerance of differing opinions and equal time and all that PC BS??

This particular one was of interest for the obvious reasons.  If it isn’t obvious to you than you really don’t need to be here and perhaps Romper Room would be more your speed.

Let me know what you think.  Remember, I am the only one allowed to be rude.  This is my site.  I will delete your posts if I think you are being rude or if I think you are an idiot.  If you don’t like that, too damn bad.  Go get your own damn site and be rude all you want.

Oh shut the hell up and sit back down moron.

Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace

1/28/07

 

                        This part of Fox News Sunday is an interview with Senator Brownback (R-KS), one of the 2008 Presidential Candidates and Senator Lieberman (I-CT).

 

            This discussion was about the upcoming troop surges in Iraq as outlined in the most recent State of The Union given by President Bush on 1/23/07.  Also, part of the discussion was the confirmation of the new U.S. Commander Lt. Gen. David Petraeus and the resolutions brought out by opponents of President Bush’s Iraq war strategy.

 

            Both Senators basically said the same thing in regards to the last election cycle and that is that the American people wanted less partisanship and more productive work to be done.  Sen. Lieberman said that the last elections were not about the war in Iraq but change.  Sen. Brownback alluded to that but without the conviction that Sen. Lieberman expressed.

 

            Sen. Brownback, when asked about the soon to come troop surges in Iraq, stated that we must win this war in Iraq but we cannot win the war in Iraq if we cannot unite here at home.  He said that we must come together here first because we and I paraphrase, “have to get everyone to pull together because with one party fighting the other party we will not win the war”.  He said that we have to win yet will support John Warner’s resolution.  He didn’t exactly state any specifics and was rather vague but did say that the resolutions would not embolden the enemy because they don’t need anything to embolden them.

 

            Sen. Lieberman, when asked about the soon to come troop surges in Iraq, stated that he was an Independent Democrat and sides with the Democrats on domestic issues but sides with the Republicans on Foreign Policy and the war against Islamic terrorists.  Sen. Lieberman said that he supports the President’s latest strategy because it has to be done to force the Iraqi government to pull their own weight.  He said that he will not support the resolutions because it could discourage the troops and give hope to the enemy.  With the Congress unanimously confirming Lt. Gen. David Petraeus and then passing non-binding resolutions, it supports the troops more or less but condemns the mission.  Sen. Lieberman said to maximize the success in Iraq by giving the plan a chance is our only option.

 

            My own take of this is skewed in many areas.  My brother was killed in enemy action in 1968 when I was 13 years old.  I have served this country from 1976 to 2004.  I have served under several CICs.  I have been to practically every country that ends in “stan”.  I was alive and well in the early 1970s when the war in Vietnam was politicized to the extent of violence in the streets and the then political party in power was happy that they brought about our loss in SE Asia.  I hear pundits decrying that this war is just like Vietnam.  In one and only one regard, it is.  It has become a political quagmire and there isn’t a politician on either side of the aisle that isn’t guilty of being a political hack in one form or another.  A political solution is that which will not work.

 

            From fellow fighting men still in Iraq and Afghanistan that I am still in contact with, this strategy will work if the politicians would shut up and let them do their jobs.  I predict a U.S. victory in Iraq and with that victory a demise of the political hacks.  A victory in Iraq will expose many politicians for what they are…power mongers.  It is already succeeding.  Al Sadr is in hiding.