On the Spot: Joe Wilson at Elaine's

[TacticalPeek]

On the Spot: Joe Wilson at Elaine's

By Don Hazen, AlterNet
May 14, 2004

Former ambassador Joe Wilson is a charming guy. He calls himself a "simple surfer from Santa Barbara" who never in his wildest dreams thought he'd be the star of a book party. But on Thursday, May 13 at Elaine's ? the legendary hang out for the literati and the power brokers on the Upper Eastside of Manhattan ? he was certainly the star. Years from now when we look back at this dark period with its unbelievable shocks virtually every day, Wilson will be remembered as one of the heroes, a clear strong voice in opposition to a government he and many others knew to be far out of the mainstream of America.

snip

Like many first-time authors who think they may only have one book in them, Wilson, by his own admission, tries to do a lot. The Politics of Truth serves as a primer about what it is like to do diplomacy from the inside; it looks at issues of war and peace in a succession of conflicts including Gulf War I and Bosnia and it examines in detail the whole yellow cake uranium fiasco in Niger. But, significantly, Wilson can't contain his outrage about how the country got taken by a small group of "maybe 150 neocons making policy for 270 million Americans, essentially based on one document: The Project for a New American Century" that served as a blue print for the invasion of Iraq after 9/11.

Wilson is a bit of a throwback. He comes from several generations of old-style Republicans. He sees his efforts on behalf of truth telling as an act of civic responsibility; he told the audience at Elaine's that it was no different "than speaking up at a town council or the local PTA." He reminds this writer of a World War II-era movie hero who felt the need to speak up because he believes in the system.

more
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18707

[Pallas180]

1. Admirable, but someone should tell him the system is broken.

.

[Spazito]

2. Joseph Wilson is truly one of the brave ones...

as is his wife. He took the bush admin and his neocon cabal head on despite the very real risks. We saw the response to his truths, the outing of a covert agent and the endangering field agents across the globe, done solely to besmirch him. I have the greatest admiration for him.