Hitchens on the tale of two narratives, Feith’s and McClellan’s:
Feith was and is very much identified with the neoconservative wing of the Republican Party, and he certainly did not believe that Saddam Hussein was ever containable in a sanctions “box.” But he is capable of separating his views from his narrative, and this absorbing account of the interdepartmental and ideological quarrels within the Bush administration, on the Afghanistan and Guantanamo fronts as well as about Iraq, will make it difficult if not impossible for people to go on claiming that, for instance:
1) There was no rational reason to suspect a continuing Iraqi WMD threat. Feith’s citations from the Duelfer Report alone are stunning in their implications.
2) That alternatives to war were never discussed and that the administration was out to “get” Saddam Hussein from the start.
3) That the advocates of regime change hoped and indeed planned to anoint Ahmad Chalabi as a figurehead leader in Baghdad.
4) That there was no consideration given to postwar planning.It’s also of considerable interest to learn that the main argument for adhering to the Geneva Conventions was made within the Pentagon and that the man who expressed the most prewar misgivings concerning Iraq was none other than Donald Rumsfeld. Feith doesn’t deny that he has biases of his own. One of these concerns the widely circulated charge that his own Office of Special Plans was engaged in cherry-picking and stovepiping intelligence. Another is the criticism, made by most of the neocon faction, of Paul Bremer and the occupation regime that he ran in Baghdad. In all instances, however, Feith writes in an unrancorous manner and is careful to supply the evidence and the testimony and, where possible, the actual documentation, from all sides.
Henry Waxman
Comment by Rob Crawford on 6/3 @ 1:34 pm #
BOLSHEVISTS!!!
Comment by dre on 6/3 @ 1:34 pm #
You neoconwarmongeringRethuglicans just can’t admit that BUSH LIED PEOPLE DIED.
Comment by dre on 6/3 @ 1:35 pm #
And NO BLOOD FOR OIL
Comment by sashal on 6/3 @ 1:38 pm #
see, rob.
Great example of commie bastard, trotskyists wannabe alliance with neoconservatives.
Thanks , Dan, very illustrative to my point
Comment by Mikey NTH on 6/3 @ 1:38 pm #
I will have to read it and then compare it to the Torch landings in North Africa in 1942. I am guessing that I am going to find some very eerie parallels.
Comment by sashal on 6/3 @ 1:40 pm #
#2, exactly
Comment by maggie katzen on 6/3 @ 1:42 pm #
it’s one of those days isn’t it?
Comment by sashal on 6/3 @ 1:42 pm #
btw, I have sent to that socialistic fascistic communistic general Shinseki a gift card to my store for calling Feith the dumbest motherfucker in the world…
General, thank you very much…..
Comment by maggie katzen on 6/3 @ 1:44 pm #
BERETS FOR EVERYONE!!!
Comment by dre on 6/3 @ 1:47 pm #
“Feith the dumbest motherfucker in the world”
America is a mean country.
Comment by Roboc on 6/3 @ 1:47 pm #
I’m sure that Douglas Feith will be on all the talk shows, just like Snotty.
Comment by maggie katzen on 6/3 @ 1:50 pm #
Roboc, considering that the book’s been out since the beginning of April, I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Comment by Roboc on 6/3 @ 1:54 pm #
I guess I’ll have to settle for C-SPAN’s bookTV.
Comment by dre on 6/3 @ 1:55 pm #
Also NO BLOOD FOR PIE
Comment by Roboc on 6/3 @ 2:02 pm #
dre, Feith can’t be the dumbest mf in the world. That title is reserved exclusively for Republican Presidents, Vice-Presidents and Presidential Candidates. Are’t you on the liberal distribution list yet.
Comment by dre on 6/3 @ 2:04 pm #
“Comment by Roboc on 6/3 @ 1:47 pm #
I’m sure that Douglas Feith will be on all the talk shows, just like Snotty.”
You can find a three hour interview by Hugh Hewitt with Doug Feith herehere.
Comment by dicentra on 6/3 @ 2:05 pm #
I would gladly donate a pint of blood for pie. What red-blooded American wouldn’t?
Comment by Sdferr on 6/3 @ 2:07 pm #
Not Shinseki. Tommy Franks.
Comment by Ouroboros on 6/3 @ 2:08 pm #
Hey.. Someone help me out here.. I must have missed something .. an amendment to our constitution that slipped past me while I was focussed on watching LOST (season 4) or something.. When did we start electing our Presidents as Au Pairs? Seems like just yesterday when Presidential wives had mostly symbolic roles.. Headed charities and humanitarian causes and such.. When did it become common to appoint them to to participate in the presidency? I was sure the Clinton years would have got that out of our system… This chick looks scarier than Hilly ever did.
Comment by dicentra on 6/3 @ 2:09 pm #
Wrong thread Ouro. We’re discussing pie and blood over here.
Pingback by a-foton » Feith vs Faithless [Dan Collins] on 6/3 @ 2:10 pm #
[...] Ed Brill wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptHitchens on the tale of two narratives, Feith’s and McClellan’s: Feith was and is very much identified with the neoconservative wing of the Republican Party, and he certainly did not believe that Saddam Hussein was ever containable in a sanctions “box.” But he is capable of separating his views from his narrative, and this absorbing account of the interdepartmental and ideological quarrels within the Bush administration, on the … [visit site to read more] [...]
Comment by dre on 6/3 @ 2:11 pm #
ok NO BLOOD FOR ETHANOL
Comment by dicentra on 6/3 @ 2:14 pm #
And Feith vs. McClellan, if you’re so inclined.
I’d like to add this to the pile; how Scotty didn’t set out to smear Bush, but his Soros-backed publisher kinda sorta pushed him that way.
So for those keeping score, a mediocre memoir by a bumbling moron (so acknowledged by the Left) that happens to correspond with Teh Narrative is hailed as a smoking gun, whereas the heavily documented account of What Really Happened (hint: it’s complexer than complex) is libra non grata.
Comment by Roboc on 6/3 @ 2:16 pm #
Thanks dre, great resource!
Comment by sashal on 6/3 @ 2:26 pm #
dicentra, it may be a surprise for you and”liberal” media, but nothing much in the Scottie book was a revelation to majority of Americans…
We really do not care..
But who knows, the additional testimony may help though…
Seems like Waxman may be interested…
Comment by Roboc on 6/3 @ 2:27 pm #
dicentra, then he lied to O’Reilly!
Comment by dre on 6/3 @ 2:28 pm #
“but nothing much in the Scottie book was a revelation to majority of Americans…”
Certainly not the moonbats on left who wrote Snottys book.
Comment by Rob Crawford on 6/3 @ 2:31 pm #
And the majority is always correct?
How bolshevist of you.
Bring. It. On.
Preferably sometime in September or October of this year. Yeah, baby, let the Democrats stage a show trial! They might even be able to get their “it was da joooooooos” caucus to stay away this time.
Comment by Roboc on 6/3 @ 2:40 pm #
Henry Waxman is an ass leprechaun, who couldn’t even tell Roger Clemens to go fuck off, wasting time and money on a circus of a hearing.
Comment by MayBee on 6/3 @ 2:42 pm #
Ooh boy. Jake Tapper just got this one big time wrong at Political Punch:
Comment by Terrye on 6/3 @ 2:43 pm #
I don’t think most Americans care what Scott McLellan says. In fact I think most Americans are getting tired of revisiting 2003. Over and over again. Maybe Bill O’Reilley will bring Feith on, after all equal time is only fair. And I think Scott is a liar btw. An opportunistic little backstabbing shit ass.
Comment by Sdferr on 6/3 @ 2:47 pm #
O’Reilly is not the sort of person interested in talking with the likes of Douglas Feith. O’Reilly already knows what the story is and doesn’t want to be disturbed with facts. He is a dismissive ass.
Comment by kelly on 6/3 @ 2:54 pm #
Dear God: please, please, please!
BTW, that there is also what’s known as a “racetrack prayer.” The difference between this kind of prayer and the one you say in church is that this one you really mean.
Comment by kelly on 6/3 @ 2:55 pm #
But remember…he’s lookin’ out for YOU!
Comment by kelly on 6/3 @ 2:57 pm #
Speaking of Waxman, is there any truth to the rumor that he can snort whole pecans?
Comment by Terrye on 6/3 @ 2:58 pm #
Maybee is right. Jake Tapper just flat out can not read. He totally misrepresents what Hitch said. I left a nasty little post at Political Punch telling him to read before he posts. After all, he is supposed to be a real journalist.
Comment by dicentra on 6/3 @ 3:11 pm #
Jake Tapper just got this one big time wrong at Political Punch:
That’s what you get for reading just the bullet points and not the introductory phrase. However, you have to fault Hitch a little bit for providing such a ripe opportunity for misquote. You should put your set-off text in the positive, because the chances that your reader will miss the negative intro are pretty high, even for good readers.
I mean, the term “drive-by media” is pretty descriptive.
Comment by Roboc on 6/3 @ 3:13 pm #
Waxman wears his Jewfro in his nostrils!
Comment by dicentra on 6/3 @ 3:14 pm #
dicentra, it may be a surprise for you and â€Âliberal†media, but nothing much in the Scottie book was a revelation to majority of Americans…
Wha?
Are you talking about the “Bush used PROPAGANDA!” revelation, or the actual lack of examples of “Bush Lied”?
Because apparently his book doesn’t reveal anything at all except that he’s a weak-minded tool, regardless of who cares to use him.
Comment by MayBee on 6/3 @ 3:16 pm #
dicentra- I know. I actually posted a comment to tapper’s blog pointing out the misunderstanding, but it was deleted. I’m hurt. I should have just said Bush lied us into war. That apparently is acceptable.
Comment by maggie katzen on 6/3 @ 3:18 pm #
I believe the term is “confirmation bias”.
Comment by kelly on 6/3 @ 3:19 pm #
There really is something metaphysically hilarious that Waxman should bear such a porcine countenance. I mean, if he were ever a in a Jewist Donner party and died first, I think it’s safe to say he’d stay uneaten.
Comment by kelly on 6/3 @ 3:21 pm #
McLellan’s kind of a porker, too. But with less integrity.
Comment by maggie katzen on 6/3 @ 3:23 pm #
I always thought he looked more like a deer in the headlights.
Comment by dre on 6/3 @ 3:25 pm #
YES WE PECAN!
Comment by kelly on 6/3 @ 3:29 pm #
Porker in the headlights?
dre: too funny.
Comment by Patrick Chester on 6/3 @ 3:31 pm #
So… the majority of Americans are too lazy to go hunt down transcripts and such to see what was left out? Was that what sashal was trying to say?
Comment by Terrye on 6/3 @ 3:31 pm #
Maybee:
They did the same thing to me, so I posted it again. I might send an email to Hitch, see if I can start a fight or something.
Comment by Salt Lick on 6/3 @ 3:32 pm #
I actually posted a comment to tapper’s blog pointing out the misunderstanding, but it was deleted.
Did you tell him to stop being so lesbian about it?
Comment by dicentra on 6/3 @ 3:33 pm #
Hey, if Tapper knows he was wrong but refuses to admit it, that would be a prime example of this: that liberals have a much higher “tolerance” for dishonesty.
Who knew?
Comment by dicentra on 6/3 @ 3:41 pm #
Terrye:
Your comment, it is there, as is one I just posted. As of now, that is. We’ll see if they stay there. It is now after 5:00 pm Eastern, after all.
Comment by Dan Collins on 6/3 @ 3:44 pm #
Waxman looks like Lon Chaney as the Phantom of the Opera.
Comment by B Moe on 6/3 @ 3:45 pm #
I saw that survey last night, dicentra. Given that the sum total of the movement is using confiscated property to buy votes, it is odd how surprising it is to folks.
Comment by Aldo on 6/3 @ 3:52 pm #
One of these concerns the widely circulated charge that his own Office of Special Plans was engaged in cherry-picking and stovepiping intelligence.
It would take me all day to track down a source for this, and I don’t have time now, but I remember reading that the man in Feith’s office who was responsible for all of that “Cherry-picked” and “stove-piped” intelligence subsequently went on to become a Democratic Congressman. Despite all the histrionics about war crimes he was welcomed with open arms by the Democratic caucus there.
Comment by Terrye on 6/3 @ 3:53 pm #
dicentra:
That was my second one. The first one was deleted. I saw yours, very good. I also did another comment. I have a big mouth and can not help myself. I mentioned the following documentary:
Target America . It was done in 1999 on ABC. It was all about how dangerous Saddam and Osama were. Does anyone else remember this thing? It was about terror connections.
Comment by Roboc on 6/3 @ 3:53 pm #
I can see Waxman turned into a can of spam. It wouldn’t detract from his chairing any congressional committees.
Comment by Terrye on 6/3 @ 3:54 pm #
Also:
Once upon a time Democrats were not pussies about this sort of thing. There are still a few of them like that.
Comment by Terrye on 6/3 @ 3:55 pm #
That should have been Aldo not Also. Time to get off the computer, making dumb mistakes.
Comment by TmjUtah on 6/3 @ 4:13 pm #
This reminds me of Waxman.
Comment by MayBee on 6/3 @ 4:14 pm #
I think Terrye’s second comment has now been deleted. Her third one is there, as is dicentra’s.
Hopefully they are at least reading them as they delete.
Comment by Rob Crawford on 6/3 @ 4:19 pm #
Well, sashal’s certainly too lazy to read a book, so he figures “who the hell’s actually going to look up what someone actually said?”
Comment by sashal on 6/3 @ 4:25 pm #
Hey, Rob, read this:
Among the excerpts of the interview captured in Engel’s new book, “War Journal: My Five Years in Iraqâ€Â:
– “‘This is the great war of our times. It is going to take forty years,’†[Bush told Engel]. “Bush said in forty years the world would know if the war on terrorism, and conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, had reduced extremism, helped moderates, and promoted democracy.â€Â
– Bush admits to Engel that going to war was a decision based on his personal instinct and not on any long-range strategy for the Mideast:
“I know people are saying we should have left things the way they were, but I changed after 9/11. I had to act. I don’t care if it created more enemies. I had to act.â€Â
Thanks for electing an idiot….
Comment by MayBee on 6/3 @ 4:27 pm #
OK, the last obsessive comment about that Jake Tapper post. Terrye’s and dicentra’s comments have all been deleted. Man, I hope it is some ugly intern doing the deleting and not my dreamboat JT.
Comment by Rob Crawford on 6/3 @ 4:56 pm #
Hey sashal, so the fuck what? The first quote isn’t anything new, if you’ve been paying attention.
The second quote is another “duh” moment — the president is the one who makes the final decision. He got the approval of Congress, but even after that he could have said “no”. It says nothing about whether there was or was not a long-range strategy, or what information informed his decision to act. If anything, it confirms the often-stated point that “containment” was acceptable before 9/11, but considered too risky afterward.
Which site did you get those quotes from? Or are you actually reading a book for a change?
Comment by dicentra on 6/3 @ 6:03 pm #
Wow. What kind of a journalist deletes perfectly good comments?
I did get a screen cap, though. For all the good it will do me. And I reposted my old comment. I can hit a button as long as they can.
Comment by Terrye on 6/3 @ 6:15 pm #
For a bunch of people who are always prattling on about freedom of speech and the right of the public to know and blah blah blah, the journos at ABC sure are high handed. Typical little hypocrites.
Comment by Terrye on 6/3 @ 6:24 pm #
dicentra:
I did another comment too. The bastards. I guess I should have said that Bush is the antiChrist, that they would let stand.
Comment by Rob Crawford on 6/3 @ 6:26 pm #
So they’re deleting comments based solely on them not toeing the party line?
I’m shocked! Shocked, I tell you!
Comment by MayBee on 6/3 @ 6:32 pm #
It’s worse than that, Rob. They are deleting comments pointing out a factual error, without correcting the error.
I actually am kind of shocked.
Comment by Merovign on 6/3 @ 6:59 pm #
I think it’s kind of charming when non-lefties are surprised when lefties lie.
It’s a charming kind of child-like innocence.
Especially given the trolls here. I mean, hello?
Comment by Rob Crawford on 6/3 @ 7:01 pm #
Why are you shocked, MayBee? We’re talking about people with a penchant for rewriting history that would make Stalin blush.
Comment by Aldo on 6/3 @ 8:49 pm #
Didn’t Walter Duranty win a Pulitzer Prize?
Comment by Dan Collins on 6/3 @ 8:50 pm #
He’s got a million of ‘em.
Comment by dicentra on 6/3 @ 9:12 pm #
My comment? Posted four times, deleted thrice.
Here it is for the record, such as it is:
****
Let me emphasize this:
“[Feith's book] will make it difficult if not impossible for people to go on claiming that, for instance:
“1) There was no rational reason to suspect a continuing Iraqi WMD threat.”
Hitch should have phrased the numbered points in the positive, but that’s no excuse for Tapper to “drive by” and fail to read ALL of the words in the right order.
Comment by Patrick Chester on 6/4 @ 7:14 am #
dicentra: Who said he “failed” to do so? It’s more likely he knew what he was doing and was hoping people wouldn’t notice it.
Of course, it’s always possible he is stupid enough to fail to notice the words in their correct context, but with the proggs, malice is a better explanation than stupidity.
Comment by dicentra on 6/4 @ 9:39 pm #
I used “failed” to give him the benefit of the doubt on his own blog. But it warn’t good enough to spare the ban-stick. Oh woe!
Comment by The Lost Dog on 6/5 @ 12:28 pm #
“Waxman looks like Lon Chaney as the Phantom of the Opera.”
I dunno. I think he looks like the guy who goes into a public Men’s Room and picks the only stall without a door on it to take a dump in.
He also looks like he is a natural for “South Park”.
Comment by Blitz on 6/7 @ 7:21 pm #
Hey, if Tapper knows he was wrong but refuses to admit it, that would be a prime example of this: that liberals have a much higher “tolerance†for dishonesty.
Dicentra
read the whole thing and it’s absolutely true. I was disabled for a time (broken neck) and was dying to get back into the game!!…My sister, who is so far left as to come almost to the right gamed the system and is collecting MY,YOUR, OUR taxes as we speak…over a disease that probably doesn’t exist. Fibromyalgia? spelling absolutely incorrect, but I hope you get the point…