The kingdom is crumbling. Pt. 2
The country may be deeply divided about President Bush, but even his harshest critics used to offer their grudging admiration of one of the greatest talents of this White House: its extraordinary discipline and message control.
For months now, the same administration whose members once prided themselves on never contradicting one another in public has been riven by conflicting pronouncements. Senior officials keep missing opportunities to keep their signals straight, prompting cases of vicious backbiting that one senior member of Mr. Bush’s national security staff said with disgust the other day “make us sound like Democrats.”
Um, if they were more “like Democrats”, probably none of this would have happened, because I doubt any Democrat would be have been extremist enough to invade two countries within a year or so.
The applause is fading; it’s time to change the Iraq script
We have come to a delicate moment in an absorbing drama. The actors seem unsure of their roles. The audience is becoming restless with the confusion on stage. But the scriptwriters keep trying to convince the crowd that the ending they imagined can still, somehow, come to pass.
The authors stick to their plotline even as its plausibility melts away, and why not? For months the audience kept applauding; many of the reviewers were admiring, while many others kept quiet.
No more. Senior military officers, government officials, diplomats and others working in Iraq, commentators, experts and analysts have all joined a chorus of doubters that is large and growing. And the applause – in this case, public approval as measured in polls – is fading. Already, some of the authors’ friends are grabbing them by their rhetorical lapels. “Failures are multiplying,” wrote George Will, the conservative columnist, yet “no one seems accountable.”
Here’s a perfect example of how the Bushies have lost it
Chalabi story spins out of control
I don’t think anyone knows what’s going on in Iraq right now. Seeing the Forest isn’t normally an up to the minute newsblog, but this is getting so weird that I can’t help myself.
From Seeing the Forest
Nobody really knows who ordered the raids on Chalabi. No one really knows who chose Chalabi’s cousin Allawi to be head of state, either. Don’t ask me.
They then list links to multiple contradictory stories about Chalabi.
My take: The neocons put Chalab in power, and now that events have spun far out of their control,, they want someone to blame stuff on.