31 January 2005
Good riddance to another neo-con
When Dubya stole, sorry won, the presidency the first time around, he inserted four neo-cons into the Defence establishment. They were Donald Rumsfeld (Rummie), Richard Perle (Richie), Paul Wolfowitz (Wolfie) and Douglas Feith (Dougie). Pledged to uphold the neo-con ideals of hypocrisy, deception and dishonour, these four mouseketeers, sorry musketeers, have wreaked havoc in the Pentagon. Just ask any senior officer in the services what they really think of these characters.
Recently, the BBC reported that Rummie's chief intelligence fabricator, sorry finder, Under-Secretary for Defence, Douglas Feith, resigned citing "personal and family reasons." In case you aren't familiar with corporate speak, that means he was fired. Now what's so special about this faceless neo-con bureaucrat?
For one, he was the Einstein who headed up Rummie's Office of Special Plans (a classic oxymoron in the light of the Iraqi Misadventure). This unit was charged by Dubya with fabricating, sorry finding, "irrefutable intelligence" (now there's another oxymoron) on Iraq's incredible vanishing NBC weapons.
You'd think that with all the vast resources of the CIA, DIA, NSA, XYZ, ABC etc it would be redundant to set up yet another agency to fabricate, sorry find, all this intelligence. After all, we were emphatically told by Dubya that Saddam's naughty weapons program had been running rampant for a decade since Daddy Bush clubbed that tyrant and destroyed his naughty toys in 1991.
Secondly, it was Dougie's fabricated, sorry genuine, intelligence that Dubya used to hoodwink Congress into supporting the Iraqi Misadventure. Yes, yes, I know that officially, the CIA was to blame. But senior Pentagon insiders have given a different account, which goes a long way to explain why the senior brass despise dear old Dougie so much for dragging them into the Iraqi marshes.
Really, if Dubya wanted real evidence, all he needed to do was ask Rummie to front up at the UN Security Council and tell them how he, Rummie, visited the tyrant in 1985 to re-establish relations on behalf of dear old Ronnie (bless the gipper). It would have been more convincing to the UN.
Over tea and date pudding, Rummie and the favoured tyrant must have closed a deal for the US to supply bio pathogens delivered in May 1986. This sordid episode of supplying bio weapons material was exposed by a bi-partisan Congressional investigation headed up by Senators Don Riegle and Alfonse D'Amato.
Pathogens supplied to the neo-cons' then favoured tyrant were charming stuff like Anthrax, Botulin, Salmonella, E. Coli, Tetanus etc., destined not for Saddam's Imperial Kitchens but for bio weapons development. For example, if you look at item 12 in the list of supplied pathogens, the Anthrax (Bacillus Anthracis) was made by a G. G. Wright of Fort Detrick. Fort Detrick in Maryland, is the US Army's Centre for Biological Warfare.
Nice to see US trade exports did so well under the neo-cons. I guess they had to pay for Ronnie's monstrous budget deficit in any way possible. I wonder if Rummie can spell and understand the Latin phrase, "mea culpa?"
But I digress.
In the lead up to the war, Rummie brushed aside the combined wisdom of the service chiefs who expressed strong opposition to a war, in order to satisfy a president hellbent on having one. In fact, there is an excellent PBS online documentary about how Rummie subverted and continues to subvert the military chain of command for such political purposes. I guess there's nothing like a war to legitimise a stolen presidency.
Along the way, Rummie and Wolfie shafted an honourable soldier and Army Chief of Staff, General Eric Shinseki, when he gave truthful answers (as one is expected to do so) to questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee three weeks before the war.
They shafted a highly respected soldier who unlike them, has actually put his life on the line for his country and even lost a foot in battle, all because he said things which contradicted the neo-cons' agenda. It was a disgraceful and dishonourable act of bastardry which the uniformed services won't forget too soon.
But Richie and Dougie have now departed the hallowed halls of the Pentagon leaving Rummie and Wolfie to hold the fort, so to speak. At least the service chiefs can take some comfort that two are down and out, and there are just two more to go.
Recently, the BBC reported that Rummie's chief intelligence fabricator, sorry finder, Under-Secretary for Defence, Douglas Feith, resigned citing "personal and family reasons." In case you aren't familiar with corporate speak, that means he was fired. Now what's so special about this faceless neo-con bureaucrat?
For one, he was the Einstein who headed up Rummie's Office of Special Plans (a classic oxymoron in the light of the Iraqi Misadventure). This unit was charged by Dubya with fabricating, sorry finding, "irrefutable intelligence" (now there's another oxymoron) on Iraq's incredible vanishing NBC weapons.
You'd think that with all the vast resources of the CIA, DIA, NSA, XYZ, ABC etc it would be redundant to set up yet another agency to fabricate, sorry find, all this intelligence. After all, we were emphatically told by Dubya that Saddam's naughty weapons program had been running rampant for a decade since Daddy Bush clubbed that tyrant and destroyed his naughty toys in 1991.
Secondly, it was Dougie's fabricated, sorry genuine, intelligence that Dubya used to hoodwink Congress into supporting the Iraqi Misadventure. Yes, yes, I know that officially, the CIA was to blame. But senior Pentagon insiders have given a different account, which goes a long way to explain why the senior brass despise dear old Dougie so much for dragging them into the Iraqi marshes.
Really, if Dubya wanted real evidence, all he needed to do was ask Rummie to front up at the UN Security Council and tell them how he, Rummie, visited the tyrant in 1985 to re-establish relations on behalf of dear old Ronnie (bless the gipper). It would have been more convincing to the UN.
Over tea and date pudding, Rummie and the favoured tyrant must have closed a deal for the US to supply bio pathogens delivered in May 1986. This sordid episode of supplying bio weapons material was exposed by a bi-partisan Congressional investigation headed up by Senators Don Riegle and Alfonse D'Amato.
Pathogens supplied to the neo-cons' then favoured tyrant were charming stuff like Anthrax, Botulin, Salmonella, E. Coli, Tetanus etc., destined not for Saddam's Imperial Kitchens but for bio weapons development. For example, if you look at item 12 in the list of supplied pathogens, the Anthrax (Bacillus Anthracis) was made by a G. G. Wright of Fort Detrick. Fort Detrick in Maryland, is the US Army's Centre for Biological Warfare.
Nice to see US trade exports did so well under the neo-cons. I guess they had to pay for Ronnie's monstrous budget deficit in any way possible. I wonder if Rummie can spell and understand the Latin phrase, "mea culpa?"
But I digress.
In the lead up to the war, Rummie brushed aside the combined wisdom of the service chiefs who expressed strong opposition to a war, in order to satisfy a president hellbent on having one. In fact, there is an excellent PBS online documentary about how Rummie subverted and continues to subvert the military chain of command for such political purposes. I guess there's nothing like a war to legitimise a stolen presidency.
Along the way, Rummie and Wolfie shafted an honourable soldier and Army Chief of Staff, General Eric Shinseki, when he gave truthful answers (as one is expected to do so) to questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee three weeks before the war.
They shafted a highly respected soldier who unlike them, has actually put his life on the line for his country and even lost a foot in battle, all because he said things which contradicted the neo-cons' agenda. It was a disgraceful and dishonourable act of bastardry which the uniformed services won't forget too soon.
But Richie and Dougie have now departed the hallowed halls of the Pentagon leaving Rummie and Wolfie to hold the fort, so to speak. At least the service chiefs can take some comfort that two are down and out, and there are just two more to go.
