Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Cronyism and the Iraq Occupation
This post in Washington Monthly describes one largely unmentioned aspect of the failre of the Iraq project, namely, the staffing of Coalition Provisional Authority staffs with Republican supporters of President Bush, regardless of expertise or experience.
The Post outlines some of these details in a story several months ago about Simone Ledeen's experience in Iraq.
The Bush administration was never really interested in transforming Iraq or spreading democracy in the Miiddle East. The Preseident was only interested in grand adventures (and why not, everything else he has ever done has always been either easy or else he would be bailed out by his dad's friends) while his political people (ie Rove, et al) and other appointees in the various federal agencies used the Iraq mission to help out like-minded Republican colleagues. There was little place in these designs for national security or American interests. The highest prioirty has always been the Bush reelection campaign.
The Post outlines some of these details in a story several months ago about Simone Ledeen's experience in Iraq.
The Bush administration was never really interested in transforming Iraq or spreading democracy in the Miiddle East. The Preseident was only interested in grand adventures (and why not, everything else he has ever done has always been either easy or else he would be bailed out by his dad's friends) while his political people (ie Rove, et al) and other appointees in the various federal agencies used the Iraq mission to help out like-minded Republican colleagues. There was little place in these designs for national security or American interests. The highest prioirty has always been the Bush reelection campaign.
# posted by N.D. Burnside @ 12:32 PM 
