"Slam Dunk!"

[elSicomoro]

I wish the President would take more responsibility for his fuckups, rather than trying to hang it on others or fate.

[xoxoxoBruce]

If only I hadn't said the jeans made her ass look fat.......

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by sycamore

I wish the President would take more responsibility for his fuckups, rather than trying to hang it on others or fate.

Not a point to be missed, I would agree with you. But any president is only as good as those he surrounds himself with and those around him need to be subject matter experts in the areas they represent. If the DCI can't be a subject matter expert on all things dealing with intel than the whole system is fk'd. I think he failed to surround himself with the best experts. Most post-9/11 texts say that the bulk of intel estimates did not support the notion that 1) there were WMD and 2) that going into Iraq was a good idea. I wonder how things would have turned out if Clinton was successful in staging the overthrow of Iraq in the 90's. We had troops on the ground and everything in place. Everything was there to support the generals and the whole thing fell apart. Either way it would have beat sending in our Armies.

[tw]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

But any president is only as good as those he surrounds himself with and those around him need to be subject matter experts in the areas they represent. If the DCI can't be a subject matter expert on all things dealing with intel than the whole system is fk'd. I think he failed to surround himself with the best experts.

Of course. 85% of all problems are directly traceable to top management. There is no 'plenty of blame to go around' except when top management casts blame elsewhere.

Pres Cheney got the people he wanted. As head of George Jr's committee to recruit a staff, Cheney selected himself as VP. His people properly reflected exactly what Cheney wanted including removal of Saddam.

Saddam was in power because of mistakes made by Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, et al in 1991. In 2003, I was asking, "They could not be so stupid as to make the same mistake again." But they did. Cheney needed to fix his legacy - his 1991 mistakes. He even got people such as Feith to constantly proclaim evil from Saddam.

Reality: Saddam was on the verge of collapse. Saddam's position in Iraq was so tenuous that Saddam was more worried about Iraqi revolution even as American tanks were doing "Thunder Runs" through Baghdad. Containment worked even after Cheney et al so screwed up. Clinton's 1998 attack on Iraq is now known to have come very close to disposing of Saddam. Saddam's biggest threat after 1996 was the Iraqi people.

Cheney could not know that. In good extremist tradition, Cheney had already decided what was truth years previous. Cheney, et al were looking everywhere for facts to prove their 'truth' rather than seek reality.

85% of all problems are directly traceable to the top man - Cheney. No wonder he surrouned himself with so many anti-American extremists who demanded from Tenent what they needed for a political agenda and to correct their legacy.