In one of Andrew Sullivan's blog entries for today, he quotes Senator Joe Biden in one of his multitudinous appearances on Meet the Press in which, responding to a question about whether he would, like John Edwards, admit to a mistake in voting for the use of force resolution in October 2002. Rather than taking the direct bait and actually answering the question, Biden instead said that the "biggest mistake" that he made was in not realizing that the Bush administration was "stunningly incompetent" in prosecuting the never-ending disastrous war in Iraq.
Andrew says that Biden's primary mistake was his mistake as well, that is, he supported the war but he did not realize that Bush was incompetent. He then challenges Kossacks to lambaste Biden to the same extent that we criticize Sullivan. What should be our response?? Do we even care?? [Stay tuned after the break - same bat time, same bat channel].
My view is that Biden is not Andrew Sullivan. Biden never labeled those who disagree with him as fifth columnists. Biden didn't question the patriotism of those who opposed the war. Biden didn't try to get Ted Rall fired for publishing a cartoon and then, rather hypocritically, go on a free speech rampage about cartoons published in Denmark. Biden didn't ruin the New Republic by publishing Charles Murray's pseudoscience. Biden didn't hire Stephen Glass.
Both Biden and Sullivan have a point. The Bush administration has indeed been stunningly incompetent in its prosecution of the interminable Iraq war fiasco. The recent revelations in Bernard Trainer's new book, the recent British revelations (in a military sense, almost as significant as the DSM), the recent interviews given by Duelfer and the recent U.S. Army historical summary have all confirmed that Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld made idiotic assumptions, had no plans whatsoever for the aftermath of the fall of Baghdad, deliberately kept troop levels too low, allowed anarchic looting to occur, precipitously de-Baathified with no idea as to the ramifications, consciously strove to minimize the level of required troops for an occupation, relied far too much on the Iraqi exiles, had virtually no human intelligence in country, consciously strove to obtain information via torture and extraordinary rendition, gave no clear guidelines to personnel on the ground, consisently invaded towns and then left, allowing insurgents to retake the towns, consciously minimized, despite warnings from on-the-ground-personnel, the military capability of the fedayeen, deliberately offended allies (in a period of time when the world was united post 9/11), blithely allowed military contractors to loot taxpayer coffers, provided no body armor or vehicle armor for troops until years into the war (and I could go on and on and on)...
But, of course, the incompetence analysis ignores all of the lying, smearing, torturing, treason, cronyistic, bullying, rule of law flaunting, oversight abdicating, fifth columnist alleging balderdash that we have seen come from the Bushies since they took office. Where are the WMD's??!! Mobile weapons labs?? Uranium centrifuges?? Uranium yellowcake from Niger?? Where is the proof of an al Qaeda-Iraq connection?? How come the oil revenues aren't paying for the war (yet another supplemental appropriation is passing through Congress today!)??!! How come the war didn't take "a matter of weeks, not months"??!! How come the reconstruction has barely even commenced??!! What was the deal with that Mission Accomplished speech??!! Why can't people drive from the Baghdad airport to the International Zone without armed escorts traveling at breakneck speed??!! What is up with all the assassinations??!! The kidnappings??!! The infiltration by the militias into the Iraq security forces??!! The beheadings??!! Why did the Bushies out Valerie Wilson??!! And Brewster Jennings??!! Why does every single war critic get smeared??!!
It is much more than simple incompetence. It includes much much more than just that. In my view, both Biden and Andrew have a long way to go before they achieve enlightenment. Best wishes to both on their long tortured journey towards knowledge and truth!