Architect Of Iraq War Strategy Blames Powell In New Memoir

Architect Of Iraq War Strategy Blames Powell In New Memoir

Washington Post   |  Thomas E. Ricks and Karen DeYoung   |   March 9, 2008 10:19 AM


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In the first insider account of Pentagon decision-making on Iraq, one of the key architects of the war blasts former secretary of state Colin Powell, the CIA, retired Gen. Tommy R. Franks and former Iraq occupation chief L. Paul Bremer for mishandling the run-up to the invasion and the subsequent occupation of the country.

Douglas J. Feith, in a massive score-settling work, portrays an intelligence community and a State Department that repeatedly undermined plans he developed as undersecretary of defense for policy and conspired to undercut President Bush's policies.


 
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The article didn't mention a title, from what I could see. How about:
"This God Awful Mess Isn't REALLY All My Fault ...not Really".

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 02:37 PM on 03/11/2008
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Wouldn't buy this book if Costco marketed it as a 900 sheet, spiral bound Toilet Paper travel buddy. And if there will never be war crimes trials or impeachment hearings for those still shamelessly balsy and stupid enough to hang onto their offices, then I'll settle for having them all lingering at the back of a "Breadline for the New American Century" coming to a metropolis near us all - thanks to their disastrous policies and actions.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 11:48 PM on 03/10/2008

How can any book written by Mr. Feith-Based Iraqubacle expect to be classified under NON-FICTION?

How can Feith be trusted to tell the truth now, given his involvement in -- and authorship of -- the lies that led to the war, the fabricated intel, the wilful suppression of post-war planning, etc.?

File it under Faith (sic) -- Blind Faith.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 08:32 PM on 03/10/2008

So I guess this isn't the place to find out how an ex-employee and colleague of Feith, who invented the Saddam 9/11 link, and has never refuted it, got to be a Democratic Congressman in PA? I tried four posts about Chris Chaney,today, and all went down the rabbit hole.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 05:05 PM on 03/10/2008

Not many of my comments seem to make the cut anymore. Who does the censoring?

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 03:30 PM on 03/10/2008
- bac I'm a Fan of bac permalink

I wonder who buys the books these guys keep coming out with. With the huge advances being shelled out, there must be a good market.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 01:32 PM on 03/10/2008



You, too, can be a war criminal with a book deal. This is America.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 12:12 PM on 03/10/2008
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Just guessing, but I doubt that Feith would want anyone to know that he was one of the founding members of PNAC... "The Project for a New American Catastrophe".

It seems that almost all of PNAC's leadership has now fled the sinking ship. The current talking points coming from all of them seems to be "We were RIGHT to invade Iraq, but Georgie didn't do it right!".

They all neglect to tell us that they were the ones cherry-picking the intelligence, determining the policies and basically navigating the Titanic. Members of PNAC were in the Defense Policy Board, The Office of Special Plans, heading the Pentagon, and strategically placed throughout the administration... even Cheney was a member.

Names like: Dick Cheney; Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Lewis Libby, John Bolton, Elliot Abrams, Frank Gaffney, Jeb Bush, Dan Quayle, Michael Ledeen, James Woolsey, Bill Bennett, Paul Wolfowitz, Eliot Cohen, I. Lewis Libby, Donald Kagan, Frances Fukiyama, Fred Kagan,. Robert Kagan, William Kristol, Charles Krauthammer and Vin Weber. (Interestingly, Vin Weber was a major stockholder and board member of ChoicePoint/DBA, the company that provided the "faulty" felon list for the 2000 Florida vote that kept an estimated 55,000 eligible Democrats from voting in Florida that year.)

These are the very people that spent more than four years demanding that we go to war in Iraq... and planning exactly HOW we should do it... and now that we are up to our asses in alligators it suddenly has nothing to do with any of them!

One by one, they are all publishing books pointing fingers at everyone else!

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 11:34 AM on 03/10/2008

Why would they give a clown like this a job at a university. He could qualify as a lab rat to be studied. This guy and the whole bunch of them should be stripped of their citizenship and sent off to Isreal where their allegience lies.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 11:00 AM on 03/10/2008

It is not surprising that Douglas J. Feith has writen "a massive score-settling work." What is surprising is that after so many lies have been told, anyone would be willing to publish more. It is said that truth is the first casulty of war. In the case of Iraq, the truth was dead and burried long before the first shot was fired.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 10:43 AM on 03/10/2008

Is it true that first term liberal Democratic Congressman Chris Carney of PA was an operative in Feith's office,and still claims that he is the person who documented a link between Saddam and 9/11? It sounds like Freeper crazy stuff, but when I googled, a lot of pretty mainstream news sources said this allegation is correct. If so, how did Democrats end up supporting someone who might well be as much of a war criminal as Doug Feith and Dick Cheney?

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 10:36 AM on 03/10/2008
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hmm, Costco-sized (900 page), T-P dispenser in a handy bound carrying case? Nahh, wouldn't even buy this tripe if it were marketed that way. And a creep like Feith shouldn't be on the Georgetown janitorial staff, let alone the faculty. In a perfect world, anyone who rode high with this Administration should be on a "Breadline for the New American Century"

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 10:09 AM on 03/10/2008
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The only cabinet person below Feith in credibility is Condi Rice.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 10:08 AM on 03/10/2008

A logical question at this point. Why oh why is a civilian with 0 military expertise divising a war strategy?

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 10:04 AM on 03/10/2008
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Although I'm no fan of Douglas Feith, I do have to agree that Bush was ill served by many of his subordinates. The responsibility of anyone is to advocate for their point of view during the formulation of policy. If Powell and Armitage felt strongly about not attacking Iraq they needed to lay out their case plainly, forcefully, and with full conviction. This isn't to say that they weren't obliged to support the President once he had decided to go into Iraq. It's merely to state that being a synchophant and allowing yourself to become a part of groupthink when you have been entrusted with such high responsibility does a disservice to yourself, the President, and ultimately the nation.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 10:00 AM on 03/10/2008
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