Embittered Insiders Turn Against Bush

Washington Post ^ | November 19, 2006 | Peter Baker

[TheTruthAintPretty]

The weekend after the statue of Saddam Hussein fell, Kenneth Adelman and a couple of other promoters of the Iraq war gathered at Vice President Cheney's residence to celebrate. The invasion had been the "cakewalk" Adelman predicted. Cheney and his guests raised their glasses, toasting President Bush and victory. "It was a euphoric moment," Adelman recalled.

Forty-three months later, the cakewalk looks more like a death march, and Adelman has broken with the Bush team. He had an angry falling-out with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld this fall. He and Cheney are no longer on speaking terms. And he believes that "the president is ultimately responsible" for what Adelman now calls "the debacle that was Iraq."

[TheTruthAintPretty]

Are we still allowed to call the French "Surrender Monkeys" when we seem to be following their lead?

[Chi-townChief]

At least the rats are happy.

[Dane]

Yawn the Wash Compost trying a pathetic attempt to stop nancy pelosi's implosion.

[FlingWingFlyer]

I've yet to see the WaPo refer to Hussein as "the disgraced" Saddam Hussein. I guess they are more sensitive to the feelings of murderous, Iraqi dictators than they are to American conservatives.

[hgro]

Adelman professes to be a thinker - In reality, he's a stinker.

[digger48]

Do I smell a book deal coming? Looks like Adelman is trolling for some interviews on the morning shows.

[shrinkermd]

What they are claiming as a "defeat" is merely a serious effort by those losing power--the Sunnis--to hang on or return to power. They do this by suicide bombers killing civilians lined up for work, IED's on our soldiers and other means of dispiriting the civilian population both in Iraq and in the US.

The RATS want defeat little understanding the consequences there and here. Our enemies are formidable and especially those within "our gates."

[Dont Mention the War]

All I had to see was the headline, and I said to myself, "Gotta be either the NYT or the Washington Post."

[MeanFreePath]

The words "defeat" and "debacle" have to be defined pretty far down to apply either of them to the situation in Iraq. But, it appears our enemies are right about us. We just don't have the stomach for anything anymore...

[Lancey Howard]

I have been reading, ad nauseum, about all these "insiders" who have joined the lamestream scumbag newsrooms and the Democrats in criticiizing the conduct of the Iraq war, and I am still waiting for one report - - just one - - which, finally, includes a sentence that begins with, "What we should have done is....", or, "The way to win this thing is to....".

I give up. It ain't happening. Everybody's a critic, but nobody has any ideas.
This Washington Post story is just the same old same old.....

[Brad from Tennessee]

[. . .a former aide's book accusing the White House of moral hypocrisy and with Vanity Fair quoting Adelman, Richard N. Perle and other neoconservatives assailing White House leadership of the war.]

The former Bush aide was exposed as a Clinton agent-provacatur and those misquoted in the Vanity Fair article have denounced it as fictitious, pre-election propaganda. The above article is post-election, partisan propaganda.

[muawiyah]

If the Washington Post says something, don't believe it.

Their main printing plant is within walking distance of 5 mosques, one of which provided extensive services to the AlQaida ground control team that supported the two hijackings out of Dulles.

They speak out of fear, as well they should, and if we're all smart once we get rid of the Islamofascist threat we'll get rid of the "posties".

[Capt. Tom]

[seppel]

Sounds more like Adelman is the problem. At the least he's an opportunist.

[HelloooClareece]

I still don't see how Iraq is the quagmire everyone says it is. I actually think that it is going pretty well.

Countries are having second-thoughts about supporting terrorists due to the chaos in Baghdad and our military, most importantly our National Guard, have gotten a great education on how to fight terrorist scum in large cities and small. Oh yeah, and a dictator is soon to be hanged.

If that's a quagmire give me some more of that.

[M. Dodge Thomas]

The words "defeat" and "debacle" have to be defined pretty far down to apply either of them to the situation in Iraq.

Part of the problem is that some of the people quoted in that article "defined victory up" so far that anything short of establishing a united pro Western Democratic government in Iraq can be claimed by our enemies as our "defeat".

Once the war was defined that way, we were in deep trouble.

[Brad from Tennessee]

You're right about the Guard. They, and the rest of the U.S. military, are the most combat-experienced force in the world right now including Israel. The American military has always proved--even in Vietnam--that given enough time and resources it can adapt to solve the problems it faces and achieve military victory. All the negativism here does not correlate with the general expression of hope and optimism you hear from the troops and the generals in Iraq. Rumsfeld said that if the war is lost it will be in Washington D.C. and not in Iraq.

[Rodney King]

Are we still allowed to call the French "Surrender Monkeys" when we seem to be following their lead?

Even assuming that the worst is true, trying and faily for 4 years is quite different from the French surrender model.

[HelloooClareece]

Spot on Brad. The quagmire is in DC, not Iraq.

I was struck by Abizaid saying that he felt hopeful when in Iraq talking to the Generals there. It was in DC that he felt despair about this conflict.