16 November 2004
Team Players
It appears that the Bush Administration was being told what it wanted to hear by team players who were in charge of critical aspects of intelligence. Certainly, George Tenet sculpted the CIA’s briefings that he presented to the White House to fit its pre-conceived notion that Saddam was behind the continuing threat of terrorism to the security of the U.S. Condoleeza Rice also followed the party line without critically challenging the credibility of evidence that Saddam had or was even developing nuclear weapons.
The New York Times article about Suspect Iraq Arms Intelligence (3 October 2004) points out that the Department of Energy was guilty of the same sycophancy. Thomas S. Ryder used the discredited report on African yellow-cake to back his conclusion that Saddam was building a nuclear capability, even though his own agency argued against the claim that the Iraqi regime’s stockpile of aluminum tubes was suitable for nuclear centrifuges.
It is notable that the use for which the aluminum tubes were supposedly intended – building rocket launchers – was probably outlawed by U.N. sanctions on Iraq. Although that self-admitted and incontrovertible violation justified collective action against Iraq, apparently the Bush administration thought it did not justify unilateral pre-emptive action by the U.S. and its Coalition partners.
Getting the U.N. to take collective enforcement action is not easy. In Bush’s own words: “It’s hard work.” But how can engaging in that hard work compare in value to doing the work of Bush’s reelection in 2004? His administration prefers to crusade against its serendipitous enemy, global terror, whose attack on the U.S. cleared the road to redemption for the Bush Presidency in the 2004 election. That crusade has captivated a wide group of team players throughout the parts of government that the 9/11 Commission and many of the rest of us have always believed should be above partisan politics.
Now that the Bush team has been re-elected, the pre-eminent team play, Condoleeza Rice, has been nominated to replace Colin Powell as Secretary of State. Mr. Powell, too, was a team player. Note his performance at the United Nations Security Council in early 2003. However, he was reputed to be a voice of moderation in the Administration before carrying out the will of the President. Ms. Rice, on the other hand, is a hard-line crusader and the chief yes-man in Bush’s coterie. Her confirmation hearings, of course, won’t challenge President Bush’s desire to surround himself with team players. That was something the electorate should have known and considered as grounds to defeat him earlier this month.
It appears that the Bush Administration was being told what it wanted to hear by team players who were in charge of critical aspects of intelligence. Certainly, George Tenet sculpted the CIA’s briefings that he presented to the White House to fit its pre-conceived notion that Saddam was behind the continuing threat of terrorism to the security of the U.S. Condoleeza Rice also followed the party line without critically challenging the credibility of evidence that Saddam had or was even developing nuclear weapons.
The New York Times article about Suspect Iraq Arms Intelligence (3 October 2004) points out that the Department of Energy was guilty of the same sycophancy. Thomas S. Ryder used the discredited report on African yellow-cake to back his conclusion that Saddam was building a nuclear capability, even though his own agency argued against the claim that the Iraqi regime’s stockpile of aluminum tubes was suitable for nuclear centrifuges.
It is notable that the use for which the aluminum tubes were supposedly intended – building rocket launchers – was probably outlawed by U.N. sanctions on Iraq. Although that self-admitted and incontrovertible violation justified collective action against Iraq, apparently the Bush administration thought it did not justify unilateral pre-emptive action by the U.S. and its Coalition partners.
Getting the U.N. to take collective enforcement action is not easy. In Bush’s own words: “It’s hard work.” But how can engaging in that hard work compare in value to doing the work of Bush’s reelection in 2004? His administration prefers to crusade against its serendipitous enemy, global terror, whose attack on the U.S. cleared the road to redemption for the Bush Presidency in the 2004 election. That crusade has captivated a wide group of team players throughout the parts of government that the 9/11 Commission and many of the rest of us have always believed should be above partisan politics.
Now that the Bush team has been re-elected, the pre-eminent team play, Condoleeza Rice, has been nominated to replace Colin Powell as Secretary of State. Mr. Powell, too, was a team player. Note his performance at the United Nations Security Council in early 2003. However, he was reputed to be a voice of moderation in the Administration before carrying out the will of the President. Ms. Rice, on the other hand, is a hard-line crusader and the chief yes-man in Bush’s coterie. Her confirmation hearings, of course, won’t challenge President Bush’s desire to surround himself with team players. That was something the electorate should have known and considered as grounds to defeat him earlier this month.
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