Quote:
Originally Posted by Undertoad
mostly about the notion that success in Iraq would produce transformational change in the middle east.
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Nothing new there. The goal of almost any invasion and occupation is to 'produce transformational change'. Usually, this involves imposing ones belief system on the target country.
BTW, TW makes a good point about the failure to supply relief to Indonesia and New Orleans. The GWB administration seems to have beaten down any independent action by subordinates in the system. If you look at the Monica Goodling situation, this system appears to be enforced in much the way political officers were used in the Soviet system. This might work better if the administration and its apparatchiks were at least competent, but sadly this was not the case. The Bush administration is anti-goverment and does not trust bureaucrats. In many ways, they have disabled the independent bureaucrats in most government agencies in the same manner they de-Baathified the Iraqi government, with much the same results.
We are left with a government on autopilot, with basic functions running, but all higher functions disabled or delayed by being micro-managed by political appointees selected more for their capacity for devotion than their ability to take independent action.
I agree that McClellan, when compared to someone like Clarke (I'm still wading through Against All Enemies), is a lightweight. However, he does have the advantage of being the 'safe' guy, one of the devout true believers that Bush thought he could trust to toe the line forever. Clarke was compromised on day one because he was a 30-year career bureaucrat who had major roles in two prior administrations. McClellan was insignificant enough that he may actually have been given more access.
Think of Mark Felt as Deep Throat. When going down the list, he was the last guy Nixon thought could be the leak. I'm reminded of the scene from 'Mr. Roberts' where the Captain is going down the list of possible troublemakers. When he gets to Pulver, he publicly dismisses him as insignificant even though he was the culprit.
Scott McClellan and Mark Felt are the real life Ensign Pulvers, people who were though to be so insignificant or blindly loyal that they were allowed to witness history being made. Bismark once made a remark about sausages and politics. These guys got to see exactly what was being stuffed in the sausage and it made them sick. What mixture of pride, patriotism, revenge, or disgust made them rat out the boss is open to debate. At least Felt never tried to make a buck off of the thing for 4 decades until his children outed him.
History will not be kind to GWB, and part of that history will be written by guys like McClellan.