Dec. 29, 2004 - 18:41 PST

THE WONDERING JEW

Witches Stew

Bob Herbert a columnist for The New York Times has an article in this mornings The Register-Guard of Eugene, Oregon which says much in a short column. In full:

RUMSFELD�S ARROGANCE IS OUT OF CONTROL

�You might think that the debacle in Iraq would be enough for the Pentagon, that it would not be in the mood to seek out new routes to unnecessary wars for the United States to fight. But with Donald Rumsfeld at the apex of the defense establishment, enough is never enough.� �So, as detailed in an article in The New York Times on Dec. 19, Rumsfeld�s minions are concocting yet another grandiose and potentially disastrous scheme. Pentagon officials are putting together a plan that would give the military a more prominent role in the intelligence gathering operations that traditionally have been handled by the Central Intelligence Agency.� �Further encroachment by the military into intelligence matters better handled by civilians is bad enough. Now hold your breath: According to the article, �Among the ideas by Defense Department officials is the idea of �fighting for intelligence,� or commencing combat operations chiefly to obtain intelligence.� �That is utter madness. The geniuses in Washington have already launched one bogus war. We don�t need to be contemplating new forms of warfare waged for the sole purpose of gathering Intelligence.� �Part of this plan to further aggrandize Rumsfeld is being drafted under the direction of Lt. Gen William Boykin, a deputy undersecretary of defense who has already demonstrated that he should not be allowed anywhere near serious matters of national security. Boykin, who once had the job of directing the hunt for Osama bin Laden, is an evangelical Christian who believes God put President Bush in the White House. He has described the fight against Islamic militants as a struggle against Satan and declared that it can be won only �if we come at them in the name of Jesus.� �Boykin asserted his views in speeches that he delivered in his military uniform at religious functions around the country. In one speech, referring to a Muslim fighter in Somalia, the general said, �My God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God, and his was an idol.� �How difficult is it to come to the conclusion that this is not a fellow who should making decisions on matters involving armed conflict with Muslims ?� �It�s also time to rein in Rumsfeld. As The Times noted in a recent editorial, �The last time Rumsfeld tried to force himself into the intelligence collection and analysis business, he created a boutique CIA in the bowels of the Pentagon under the command of Douglas Feith, the undersecretary of defense for policy. The office essentially fabricated a link between Saddam Hussein ands Osama bin Laden � a link used to justify the Iraq invasion, and one that Rumsfeld was not getting from the CIA.� As Rumsfeld sees it, if the professionals won�t give you what you want, find someone who will. The Bush administration wanted from its intelligence sources a reason to go to war. Rumsfelds shop was happy to oblige.� �The war in Iraq was the result of powerful government figures in posing their dangerous fantasies on the world. The fantasies notably included the weapons of mass destruction, the links between al-Qaeda and Saddam, the throngs of Iraqis hurling kisses and garlands at the invading Americans and the spread of U.S.-style democracy throughout the Middle East. All voices of caution were ignored, and the fantasies were allowed to prevail.� �The world is not a video game, although it must seem like it at times to the hubristic, hermetically sealed powerbrokers in Washington who manipulate the forces that affect lives of so many millions of people in every region of the planet. That kind of power calls for humility, not arrogance.� �This latest overreach by Rumsfeld is a sign that the administration, like a hardheaded adolescent, has learned little or nothing from the tragic consequences of its wrongheaded policies. The second term is coming, so buckle up. It promises to be a very dangerous four years.� Here are an old man�s thoughts and opinions. Very often when I read Bob Herbert�s articles all I can do is slap my thigh and shout, �Gee, I wish there would be something I could say in addition that might be a valid addition to what he said.� It does appear to me that we have at the helm megalomaniac, so-called evangelicals preaching war and destruction against people who do not want to be forced into a democracy of Rumsfeld/Bush parameters. In an attempt to be diplomatic about the Iraq situation, it appears we went in there rashly without any real conception of existent circumstances and no knowledge of how things really were over there. A preemptive action labeled as a war of liberation it seems to me. A war of slogans, mottos and disinformation while at home things are getting worse each day. And I wonder, just how far can our manpower, resources, equipment and finances keep up this shambles ? And the stick keeps stirring the Witches Stew

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