Ledeen looks to weasel out on the ignoble lie Yes, nothing succeeds like success. And having what appears to be one miserable morass of a failure on our hands, Mr Ledeen wishes to separate himself from the effort by pointing to the failure of the administration to adopt his grand strategic talking points. If only they had done such, we would not be in the difficult position of having to win this war to prove him right.

Neocon reliance on spin and deception seems to blind them to the need for practical, real world thought and planning needed in accomplishing such a grandiose scheme. There were a few generals that got the bum's rush when they attempted to point out some of the uncomfortable exigencies of that upon which Bushco was about to embark. I think those matters that the generals were concerned with had much greater bearing on where we find ourselves now rather than the intemperate selection of debating points.

The only way the neocons could have been any more Stalinistic in their handling of the approach of war would have been to put a bullet in the back of the head of the aforementioned generals. There was a much greater effort to lie (by obfuscation if nothing else), punish and sweep aside any that were not in lockstep with the scheme rather than to engage in any kind of open debate in this country.

No, I imagine that today would have been a much different day had there been a completely honest reconciliation of the intelligence and the concerns of our military planners.  ¶ 11/25/2005 10:13:00 PM