December 31, 2004
REALISTS NEED NOT APPLY:
A state of chaos: George Bush has purged the last of his father's senior advisers, handing over control to his neocon allies (Sidney Blumenthal, December 30, 2004, The Guardian)
[B]ush has unceremoniously and without public acknowledgement dumped Brent Scowcroft, his father's closest associate and friend, as chairman of the foreign intelligence advisory board. The elder Bush's national security adviser was the last remnant of traditional Republican realism permitted to exist within the administration. [...]Bush has long resented his father's alter ego. Scowcroft privately rebuked him for his Iraq follies more than a year ago - an incident that has not previously been reported. Bush "did not receive it well", said a friend of Scowcroft.
In A World Transformed, the elder Bush's 1998 memoir, co-authored with Scowcroft, they explained why Baghdad was not seized in the first Gulf war: "Had we gone the invasion route, the US could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land."
Hopefully this is all true rather than just another one of Grassy Knoll's fantasies. Posted by Orrin Judd at December 31, 2004 3:25 PM
"Scowcroft privately rebuked him for his Iraq follies more than a year ago".
Wow. Blumenthal is right. I actually looked up the word "privately" in the dictionary, and it's definition was "That which is published on the New York Times and Wall Street Journal editorial pages".
Who'da thunk?
Posted by: Andrew X at December 31, 2004 4:26 PM"privately rebuked him..more than a year ago"
How about publicly in the in the middle of the campaign (right click open new window there is a popup).
Posted by: h-man at December 31, 2004 4:31 PMIn an alternate dimension: "Had we not gone the invasion route, the US could conceivably still have to invade the country a second time to accomplish what we should have accomplished the first time."
Posted by: Chris Durnell at December 31, 2004 6:13 PMLoyalty matters. Scowcroft, it is a disgrace for a man whose entire military experience amounts to crashing a helicopter on a training run in New Hampshire to be referred to as 'General', showed once again that he is more loyal to Saudi payola than to the US. Had Scowcroft not gone public with his criticisms, (and we should definitely look to see who paid him and how much in the last 18 months), he would not have been dismissed.