It Worked so Well the First Time
One of my colleagues decided to vote for Bush in 2000 because he thought that the, then candidate would surround himself with smart people that would help him make informed decisions. In his estimation, this is what Bush’s father did in the previous administration, and it was a somewhat successful venture. Of course, 41 didn’t get reelected because of his neglect of domestic issues, but internationally, things seemed to go fairly well with the collapse of the Berlin wall and rapid rescue of Kuwait from the hands of Saddam. In his road to the White House, Governor Bush appointed Dick Cheney to be in charge of his Vice Presidential selection committee. Cheney had been the Sec Def in 41’s cabinet, when the US was providing support to the Mujahadin in Afghanistan and aid to Iraq in the Iran/Iraq Conflict. George decided to go with Mr. Cheney as his running mate shortly after his committee appointment—this should have been a warning sign.
After winning the election, the new President formed what has been noted as nepotistic and cronyistic (even if it's not a word) Administration. This was beside the fact that many of 41’s cabinet members showed up in the 43 Cabinet. Appointments, reaching into the government’s functional areas, were granted to close campaign supporters; the most critical of these revealed by Katrina. The nomination of White House Counsel Harriet Mier to the Supreme Court should have made it obvious that the current Administration does not go out of its way to find the best, most qualified people to fill positions, and this behavior has not changed with the new Sec Def appointment or the members of the Iraq Study Group.
Yes, many of the people involved have particular experience in the defense and international relations fields they are being appointed too, but one should not lose site of the fact that these same people set the groundwork for what became the Iraq in which Saddam gassed his own people and the Afghanistan of the Taliban. Groundwork set by support or neglect. These appointees did not have the farsighted vision to understand the full consequences of their choices, nor where they able to conceptualize the growth of terrorism as a result. How can these people be counted on to stop a situation that their thinking created? As the world security situation becomes more unstable, it is time to require the Administration step outside of its very small box.
"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." -Albert Einstein
After winning the election, the new President formed what has been noted as nepotistic and cronyistic (even if it's not a word) Administration. This was beside the fact that many of 41’s cabinet members showed up in the 43 Cabinet. Appointments, reaching into the government’s functional areas, were granted to close campaign supporters; the most critical of these revealed by Katrina. The nomination of White House Counsel Harriet Mier to the Supreme Court should have made it obvious that the current Administration does not go out of its way to find the best, most qualified people to fill positions, and this behavior has not changed with the new Sec Def appointment or the members of the Iraq Study Group.
Yes, many of the people involved have particular experience in the defense and international relations fields they are being appointed too, but one should not lose site of the fact that these same people set the groundwork for what became the Iraq in which Saddam gassed his own people and the Afghanistan of the Taliban. Groundwork set by support or neglect. These appointees did not have the farsighted vision to understand the full consequences of their choices, nor where they able to conceptualize the growth of terrorism as a result. How can these people be counted on to stop a situation that their thinking created? As the world security situation becomes more unstable, it is time to require the Administration step outside of its very small box.
"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." -Albert Einstein
posted by bob at 14.11.06
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