Why we are really in Iraq
Frank Rich doesn't tell us anything we don't already know, but hey, it's another book destined to piss off rightwing circlejerkers.
Bush dragged the US to war so the GOP could win midterm elections -- and the press went along for the ride, says the NY Times' Frank Rich.
Rove decided Bush needed to be a "war president." The problem, however, was that Afghanistan was fading from American minds, Osama bin Laden had escaped, and the secret, unglamorous -- and actually effective -- approach America was taking to fighting terror wasn't a political winner: "How do you run as a vainglorious 'war president' if the war looks as if it's winding down and the number one evildoer has escaped?"
The answer: Wag the dog. Attack Iraq. "Here, ready and waiting on the shelf in-house, were the grounds for a grand new battle that would be showy, not secret, in its success -- just the political Viagra that Rove needed for an election year."
This quick 'n' easy war was perfectly designed to appeal to George W. Bush. Rich draws a quick but brilliant sketch of Bush as a lazy, entitled boor, lacking in any real ideology beyond crony-capitalist Republicanism, who above all wanted to win and was accustomed to winning -- because he had always played with a rigged deck.
Rove decided Bush needed to be a "war president." The problem, however, was that Afghanistan was fading from American minds, Osama bin Laden had escaped, and the secret, unglamorous -- and actually effective -- approach America was taking to fighting terror wasn't a political winner: "How do you run as a vainglorious 'war president' if the war looks as if it's winding down and the number one evildoer has escaped?"
The answer: Wag the dog. Attack Iraq. "Here, ready and waiting on the shelf in-house, were the grounds for a grand new battle that would be showy, not secret, in its success -- just the political Viagra that Rove needed for an election year."
This quick 'n' easy war was perfectly designed to appeal to George W. Bush. Rich draws a quick but brilliant sketch of Bush as a lazy, entitled boor, lacking in any real ideology beyond crony-capitalist Republicanism, who above all wanted to win and was accustomed to winning -- because he had always played with a rigged deck.
Clicky.
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