Saturday, October 02, 2004
"Ow! Stop It!" Says the Bully
The Bush administration continues to confuse the "bully pulpit" of the White House with its own primal urges toward bully behavior.0 comments
NYTimes: C.I.A.-White House Tensions Are Being Made Public to Rare Degree
Rarely, if ever, has a White House unearthed and used—not only all the immense and varied means at its disposal to harass, denigrate and, yes, bully every person who shows dissent from its well-crafted party line—but whole stores of underhanded, deceitful, unethical and illegal means to achieve its ends that even the Nixon and Harding administrations would blanche at.
However, as we've just witnessed in Thursday night's Debate, this bully of an administration—as with most bullies—simply CANNOT TAKE A PUNCH.
Not without whining loudly and incessantly.
Not without the absurd bully hubris of saying "the other guy played unfair!"
"Wars bring things out in people that sometimes other disputes don't," said R. James Woolsey, a former director of central intelligence. "But even with the passions of war, I think you ought to keep it within channels."
Woolsey, of course, is a major, outspoken architect of the Neo-Con movement. Not the most trusted of voices on this matter. Anytime you would allow your own former charges placed in harm's way for political reasons, you've lost all credibility.
The C.I.A. is filled with men and women who have decided that laying down their lives, if need be, to protect their country is the highest calling a person could have. This type of dedication, selflessness and courage needs to be honored and made the subject of song.
Howver, this administration has used and abused its intelligence community since Day One—setting up the C.I.A. as little more than a hired public relations firm, spitting out "facts" to back up a pre-ordained plan. Exreme, ongoing pressure by George W. Bush, and especially Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice and their staffs, misused and insulted one of the Crown Jewels of the American government. Intelligence information was twisted, pressured, forced out to the public without corroboration or scrutiny, denied, trial-ballooned, manipulated and generally misused by this administration to buttress its own narrow political aims.
Up to, and including, this administration's risking the life and professional cover of all C.I.A. covert operatives and destroying all of its covert operations. All, just to make themselves look good.
Period. End of story.
Well, no professional organization with immense well-earned pride, suffers this type of outside corruption of itself without fighting back at some point.
And it's never wise to piss off a group of people who may well come across information that your life might be in danger.
There's one thing no bully ever wants to hear from behind him over his shoulder:
"Ole!"
posted by Gotham 1:02 PM
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