2 thoughts on “Iraq Reconstruction Bidding: ‘Vengeance is Mine’ Saith Wolfowitz – Tikun Olam תיקון עולם إصلاح العالم
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  1. You have a sharp eye for the unsavory intentions of the Bush administration, but seem to give everyone else a pass. Here’s Howard Dean talking about the possibility of forming a coalition to attack Iraq back in 1998 and a little bit about the French (Chirac’s even worse now):

    “Though Dean has repeatedly criticized Bush for failing to win international support for the Iraq war, for instance, in June 1998 he defended Clinton’s bombing of Iraq by arguing on the Canadian program, “I don’t think we could have built an international coalition to invade or have a substantial bombing of Saddam.”

    During another 1998 appearance on the show, “The Editors,” Dean said it was not worth trying to woo French support on foreign policy initiatives. “The French will always do exactly the opposite on what the United States wants regardless of what happens, so we’re never going to have a consistent policy,” he said.”

  2. Hey, Glenn. Thanks for the Wash. Post link. But I can’t access it. If I register at their site will I be able to? If not, in future I’d suggest that you quote from the passage you’re referring to in your commment since it’s hard on people to click on a link & be forced to register to use the site BEFORE they can see the link you’re referring to.

    Lots of people are now parsing Dean’s every comment, interview, press release for inconsistencies, lies, distortions, etc. All in the hope of bringing him down a peg or two. I too believe nobody should be bigger than their britches. But all this parsing & hermeneutics is ridiculously overblown.

    Take your Washington Post quotation from 1998 saying we could not have created an international coaliton to bomb Sadaam. First up, in ’98 (FIVE years ago!–a lifetime in politics) Dean was a governor of a small New England state. I wouldn’t make too much of anything he said about foreign policy then (as opposed to now when I think it’s perfectly legitimate to analyze closely his every word on the subject). In five years, I give a guy the right to change his views on most subjects. Dean thought then we couldn’t amass an international coalition to invade Iraq. Now, he does believe we could have in the lead up to the Bush-Iraq War. What’s the problem? You want to make him out to by a lying, hypocritical sack of excrement based on this type of thing? Doesn’t work for me.

    As for the French, Dean was merely saying what every U.S. President has believed since Roosevelt met De Gaulle. He was NOT saying we shouldn’t have tried to woo French support for THIS PARTICULAR initiative (war on Iraq). He was making a general statement that he wouldn’t hold U.S. policy hostage to gaining French support. I’d agree with him. If we could’ve gained Russian & German support, but not French–that would’ve been fine with me; and would’ve represented a significant international coalition–even without the French (though I believe that if we won the Germans over, the French would’ve come too).

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