Run---do not walk, do not wait for Amazon's SuperSaver delivery schedule---to your local bookstore and buy Douglas J. Feith's War and Decision. It is unlike any book that has come out of the Beltway in years, written by a member of that rare species, the objective insider seeking to set the record straight rather than settle scores or engage in desperate self-justification. It is, in a word, scholarly; with massive references to documents and the actual decisionmaking record, Feith sets out the evidence on how the decision to go to war in Iraq was made, on who and which institutions supported what courses of action, etc. If you want hard evidence to refute the various disinformation campaigns of the left---and others---this is the work in which to find it.
I will begin a series of blogs on this book next week.
I will begin a series of blogs on this book next week.
Ben, I look forward to your taking up the cudgel.
ReplyDeleteAs I'm aware of your relationship with Doug Feith---and he was a key and often vilified figure in President Dubya's neocon adventure in Iraq---I took the time to watch his extensive interview on C-SPAN this past weekend that limned his book.
There has been much nonsense about the mistakes that were made in the Iraq enterprise, but what's offended me most is although that perhaps the Bushists and neocons were careless and even callous, they were not insincere.
Doug Feith's eyewitness account will not be given the time of day before the next election, but our friends on the left who want the truth so such folly never happens again had better listen to Doug Feith first, if they are to be sincere in their judgments.
He was there. They weren't.
I look forward to the apologetics of a friend of the man labeled by the military leadership as the "f***ing stupidest person on the face of the planet."
ReplyDeletePerhaps Dr. Zycher and Spencer Ackerman can get into a rumble over it?
Mebbe we should hear Mr. Feith out first, Mr. Elliott.
ReplyDeleteWhat I like so far is that there are few villains in his account, something that my friends on the left have trouble with. [Bush, Cheney = evil]
"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."
Feith is quite forthright in admitting the mistakes and stupidities.
"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."
ReplyDeleteO'Hanlon's Razor is quite a favorite of mine.