Have the neocons killed a presidency?:Pat Buchanan

[jbfam4]

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=37139

Have the neocons killed a presidency

Posted: February 16, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern by Pat Buchanan

On Sept. 15, according to author Bob Woodward, Paul Wolfowitz spoke up in the War Cabinet to urge that Afghanistan be put on a back burner and an attack be mounted at once on Iraq, though Iraq had had nothing to do with 9-11. Why Iraq? Said Wolfowitz, because it is "doable."

On Sept. 20, 40 neoconservatives in an open letter demanded that Bush remove Saddam from power, "even if evidence does not link Iraq directly to the <9-11> attack." Failure to do so, they warned the president, "would constitute an early and perhaps decisive surrender in the war on international terrorism."

While Bush had taken office as a traditional conservative skeptical of "nation-building" and calling for a more "humble" foreign policy, after 9-11, he was captured by the neocons and converted to an agenda they had worked up years before. Suddenly, he sounded just like them, threatening wars on "axis-of-evil" nations that had nothing to do with 9-11.


Though he had internalized the neoconservative agenda for war, he had no rationale, no justification, no casus belli. Iraq had not threatened or attacked us.

Enter the WMD. Neoconservatives pressed on Bush the idea that Iraq must still have weapons of mass destruction and must be working on nuclear weapons. And as Saddam was a figure of such irrationality – i.e., a madman – he would readily give an atom bomb to al-Qaida. An American city could be incinerated.



But now they have led a president who came to office with good intentions and a good heart to the precipice of ruin. One wonders if Bush knows how badly he has been had. And if he does, why he has not summarily dealt with those who misled him?

[Fenris]

1. Buchanan knows the answer

He may be a conservative and xenophobic, but he has made his opinions of the neoconservative contingent well known.

[Skittles]

2. the "president" was not "had"

he's a f***ing puppet for the neocons, a role he relishes playing.

[salinen]

3. I cannot help but say

"Buchanan speaks the truth"

[xxqqqzme]

4. how can squatter have a 'good heart'

& 'good intentions' when he seized power thru fraud. Rethugs just love 2 skip over those finer points.

[indepat]

13. The only intentions GWB had after his inauguration were to reward

wealthy patrons, including large corporations, implement a PNAC agenda, and otherwise implement a far, hard-right ideology. Everything done was to further those goals and nothing else mattered, IMHO.

[mhr]

5. A Little Too Much Transference For My Tastes - No Bush Accountability

eom

[glarius]

6. Buchanan is STILL making excuses for Bush..

I would hardly describe this self-centered, unthinking, vicious man, who sneeringly sent a repentant woman (Karla Tucker) to her death as
a president who came to office with good intentions and a good heart ....Bush is an opportunist...He uses those who will help him advance his hold on power....I don't believe he was misled into his Iraq attack....He had others who were advising against it but he chose which path to take.....

[AZCat]

7. Bush* DOES have a good heart...

Compared to Cheney, who has had 4(+) heart attacks!
The man may be an idiot, but he does exercise...

[Martin Eden]

8. Does Bush truly believe what he says?

Is Bush a knowing liar, or is he badly out of touch with reality?

Is he devoutly religious, or is it just an act?

In his certitude, is he expressing genuine belief or is it all just politics?

To be honest, I don't know the answers to these questions -- could be a little of both. If Bush is a knowing liar, it is very easy to characterize him as utterly despicable.

But if he truly believes the (demonstrably false) things he says, then he is perhaps more dangerous and scary than if he was simply a lying politician.

When the man who controls the most powerful military in the history of this planet is delusional and subscribes to a fundamentalism that sees Armageddon as a holy Rapture to be desired, then we should be afraid -- be very afraid.

[beanball]

10. The convictions of Bush

His religious statements and actions are contradictory,Christians love their neighbors,they don't kill them.

[Martin Eden]

11. Contradictions are not uncommon among the delusional

or the zealot. Sprinkle in a large helping of ignorance -- Bush not only lacks intellectual curiosity, he barely reads -- getting nearly all his information from the cabal for which he is the front man. With cognitive dissonance and compartmentalization, I think it's very possible that Bush believes most, if not all, of his own lies.

As for religion, it has a long historical association with money, power, and war. Look at the huge base of Christian fundies who support the Republican Party -- and by extension, many policies that are decidedly un-Christian. Are all these people liars, conspirators, and hypocrites? Methinks most of them are quite cozy in their sanctimonious cocoons, oblivious to independent critical thought that might expose them to the destruction carried out in their name.

[indepat]

12. And they are reichous. Never forget how reichous they are.

[soleft]

14. You nailed it

[ixion]

9. IMO, Bush has never had good intentions, or a good heart

I think the evidence is very clear on this. He was lying prior to 9-11, it's just that the lies became more grandiose afterwards.

This worthless maladministration has done extensive damage both domestically and internationally. That's a fact. Never has the US been more divided, nor the world been more united against us.

I can only hope that people realize this, and vote these thugs out of office.

[Jack Rabbit]

15. Consider this statement

On Sept. 20, 40 neoconservatives in an open letter demanded that Bush remove Saddam from power, "even if evidence does not link Iraq directly to the <9-11> attack." Failure to do so, they warned the president, "would constitute an early and perhaps decisive surrender in the war on international terrorism."

The germ of Bush's downfall was contained therein. Somehow, the neocons were asserting that Saddam was a necessary target in the war on terror even if he had no connection with terror. These are supposedly intelligent men; how did they miss such a glaring contradiction in their own thinking.

[Merlin]

16. Because the neocons true agenda does not support the US first.

For clarity, it must be recognized that these people are nearly all fanatically pro-israeli, and their actions can be seen as very pragmatic when viewed from that perspective.

[dennis4868]

17. what about this statement?

"For though U.S. policy since Clinton had called for regime change in Iraq, there is no evidence, none, that Bush planned to invade prior to 9-11. "

Umm, Mr. Buchanan did you read THE PRICE OF LOYALTY? According to Paul Oneill and his notes Cheney and the gang were dividing up Iraq's oil fields from day one!

[teryang]

18. Frauds and murderers, the whole lot

The idea that chimp is religious is nonsense. He is a lying thieving fraud like his father and brothers. Trying to distinguish him from the neo-cons is a dishonest electoral ploy.