I would call it a must-read for those wanting some inside glimpses on many of the Bush Administration players and the background on a number of events and decisions. I’m going to break my notes and thoughts into different posts this week: Suskind and Bush was Monday, Tuesday was Suskind and Cheney, Wednesday Suskind and Tenet. Today is a miscellaneous wrapup
PART FOUR – Miscellaneous material that didn’t quite fit into previous posts
* in Afghanistan, the CIA led the invasion, the military played a secondary role–this did not make the Pentagon civilians happy
* in January 2002 Rumsfeld in quoted:: “Every CIA success is a DoD failure”
(Cogitator: Territorial in-fighting and egomania are nothing new in D.C. or anywhere else but, in this case, the question to be answered is what’s best for American security, not who does what)
* In 1998, Libya started process of ending rogue state status–not due to the invasion of Iraq or Afghanistan. This didn’t stop the Bush Administration from taking credit AND crediting it to their muscular foreigh policy. (Cogitator: One thing I keep coming back to is that the politicization of any national security issue is demeaning and dangerous to the American public, displays the unscrupulous political priorities of those doing the politicizing and demonstrates the immorality of the politicker’s personal ethics)
* on page 61: is described how Dick Cheney is actually in charge of much of the Bush administration’s foreign policy, especially WMD. (Cogitator: This territory has been covered the last few days–the American public and media need to be extremely precise in differentiating between real, actual leadership and photo-op leadership)
* on the capture of Abu Zubaydah, a CIA person is quoted, irony intended, as saying that we need to fix him up, get him healthy, so we can torture him (Cogitator: This is the only humor, such as it is, in the book)
* “We (the CIA) understood that the government was more ideologically driven and that analysts were being ignored all over…It’s just that we thought such a thing wouldn’t apply when we were going to war–that it was a different standard than, say, budget policy or tax cuts…” (Cogitator: This is particularly damning in that it’s yet further confirmation that EVERYTHING is political fodder in the Bush Administration)
* Pressure from the White House led to CIA to this: “We started to worry about what our troops might face” since the invasion was a sure thing so there was a kitchen stove/sink quality to reports, every possibility went into reports no matter how slight. (Cogitator: Setting up self-fulfilling prophecies through threats and pressure–“we think they enemy has XXXX and that is because analysis by our national security agencies indicate this”–because they have been brow=beaten and harangued have been a primary keynote of the Bush Administration)
* CIA did a strategic analysis on Bin Laden’s October 29, 2004 tape: “Bin Laden’s message was clearly designed to assist the President’s election” (Cogitator: this is what is so crazy-making for those who live in the reality-based world but sadly unintelligible for so many Americans–that George Bush’s actions are playing into the hands of the terrorists)
* Suskind: “torture self interested use of classified materials to carry forward political ends, the very concealment of the true nature of what’s been happening since 9/11 are all means that, whatever their advertised value, strike at the nation’s character” (Cogitator: I translate this as Suskind saying the Bush Administration is ripping the historic heart out of America, that the fabric that has made up America for 200+ years is being torn asunder by a cabal that will do, say, make up and use whatever is available or needed to score political points)
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Cogitator: Add James Risen’s “State of War,” “Cobra II” by Michael Gordon and Bernard Trainor, “State of Denial” by Bob Woodward and now “Tempting Faith” by David Kuo to the mix and a poisonous, incriminating broth of Mayberry Machiavellian-ism, incompetence, willed ignorance, sadism, childish fantasy and the most relativistic of morality boils over, making the White House and Pentagon little more than cesspools.
Historians will belittle George Bush’s presidency like no other, despite his uber cowardly campaign of invoking executive privilege and classifying almost anything and everything to keep information from the public domain. Never before in recent history has someone so mis-matched, so partially formed, so scary yet simultaneously so pathetic, resided in the White House.
Relying on his gut level feeling, his instincts might have served him well in betting on a certain team at a sporting event but it’s an infantile and foolish method of operating in the world, incredibly so for a president. The visceral is certainly part of all of us but using such reaction as the primary or exclusive element in decision-making is typically eliminated late in one’s teenage years.
That’s been the problem–the person in the most powerful position on this planet has never grown up, never been forced to grow up, never had to truly confront his inner demons (those beyond alcohol). He’s been coddled and provided cover since his teen years. The disappearance of certain personal documents, the invocation of family power, possibly a financial payoff or two, all enabled The Bush Years, 2000-2008, to take place.
While loving a family member is certainly something normal and to be cherished, such cannot come at the expense of the ruination of a country and parts of the world. Thank you–sarcasm intended–George and Barbara Bush, for enabling and unleashing your tormentor on the world. Thank you–sarcasm intended–George W. Bush for heeding the ‘call’ from your Higher Father to not only run for the presidency but to re-shape the Middle East for Him. He must have called upon you because of your unique qualifications, tremendous accomplishments and breadth of worldly experience. It’s curious how so many of those Higher Father ‘calls’ never involve emptying bedpans or comforting the afflicted but rather delusional grandiosity.
