Bush should scuttle "stupid" Pentagon policy on contracts: conservatives

[Barrett808]

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Two influential conservatives urged the White House to overrule a Pentagon decision to barring companies from countries which opposed the US-led Iraq war from competing for lucrative contracts to rebuild the country.

"President Bush, we suspect, is going to overrule the Pentagon's attempt to exclude ... certain countries that have opposed US policy in Iraq," wrote William Kristol and Robert Kagan, leading pundits with the neo-conservative political movement which enjoys considerable influence in the White House and US Republican circles.

"He might as well do it sooner rather than later, so as to minimize the diplomatic damage done by the Pentagon's heavy-handed and counterproductive action," Kristol and Kagan wrote in their right-of-center magazine The Weekly Standard.

While they embraced the general idea of holding nations accountable for their support -- or lack thereof -- for US policies, "this particular effort by the Pentagon to reward friends and punish enemies is stupid, and should be abandoned," they wrote.

"A deviously smart American administration would have quietly distributed contracts for rebuilding Iraq as it saw fit," wrote Kristol and Kagan, while "a truly wise American administration would have opened the bidding to all comers ... as a way of buying those countries into the Iraq effort, building a little goodwill for the future, and demonstrating to the world a little magnanimity."

(more)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=afp/iraq_us_rebuild_reax

[CatWoman]

1. Stupid is as stupid does

I'm very glad to see people calling it like it is.

Kerry, Press and now his own party groupies.

Bout damn time!!!!

[truthisfreedom]

2. but wait... bushco can't reverse this... it would show weakness and mafias

can't afford to show weakness. bushco is a mafia. it's all about favors and beak-dipping and palm-greasing. you can't bring diplomacy into a situation that is being operated under a system of graft, greed, corruption, violence, threats, and... did i say corruption already?

[CheshireCat]

3. Oh God - NO!!!!!

I find myself agreeing with Bill Krystol. I feel dirty!

[wellst0nev0ter]

7. Don't Step In The Shower Yet

A deviously smart American administration would have quietly distributed contracts for rebuilding Iraq as it saw fit, without any announced policy of discrimination. At the end of the day, it would be clear that opponents of American policy didn't fare too well in the bidding process. Message delivered, but with a certain subtlety.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/003/481yjxxw.asp

[underpants]

9. The subtlety of stepping on a rake.

but with a certain subtlety

Oh geez they are trying to portray W as crafty and slyly working the situation.

[tlcandie]

4. So, in essence, he's saying ...

Be wise and open to all while being DEVIOUSLY smart while quietly distributing them as see fit...?


DEVIOUS also in infamous use by Jebby in Florida.

[underpants]

5. List of the contract eligible coaliton nations-Palau & Iceland!!!!

I believe this is exactly the same list that is being used for the contract eligibility. Notice that of the 48 countries one of them is THE USA!!! Iceland hasn't had a military since something like the 15th century and Palau is a island nation of about 40 square miles.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/03/20030321-4.html

Forty-eight countries are publicly committed to the Coalition, including:
Afghanistan
Albania
Angola
Australia
Azerbaijan
Bulgaria
Colombia
Costa Rica
Czech Republic
Denmark
Dominican Republic
El Salvador
Eritrea
Estonia
Ethiopia
Georgia
Honduras
Hungary
Iceland
Italy
Japan
Kuwait
Latvia
Lithuania
Macedonia
Marshall Islands
Micronesia
Mongolia
Netherlands
Nicaragua
Palau
Panama
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Rwanda
Singapore
Slovakia
Solomon Islands
South Korea
Spain
Turkey
Uganda
Ukraine
United Kingdom
United States
Uzbekistan

[POed_Ex_Repub]

11. Hmmm...

Anyone else waiting for the huge oil contract they give to Micronesia?

[tom_paine]

6. Emperors DON'T scuttle, they DON'T backtrack and they DON'T apologize

These assholes need to taste the pain of what they've wrought.

I'm afraid we all will before long.

[callous taoboy]

8. and he should fire

sob wolfie while he's at it, but that would take balls and brains.

[JM]

10. Um...gee...

...you don't think this went through SecDef, do you? I assume it did. If so, It would prove the Great Uniter can't even unite his freaking cabinet on the same page. DOD undoes everything State tries to do, and vice versa.

Dubya must view his cabinet meetings as a no-holds-barred cage match

JM the Pissed

[pinto]

13. He doesn't read the agenda, the minutes or the memos...

[drscm]

12. I love how the authors shift the blame to the Pentagon...

as if *Bush had nothing to do with this decision.

*Bush's entire world view is based on "loyalty" at all costs - a common attribute of addicts. If you are not loyal to *Bush, then you can be sure that he and his minions will damn you.

[pinto]

14. Kristol and Kagan are "setting the stage" for something...n/t

[radfringe]

15. damage is already done

best they can hope for is to quickly back-pedal, run the spin machine at the highest RPM's and then blame it all on Clinton

[damnraddem]

16. Don't they get it? This is Dubya.

Quote: "... building a little goodwill for the future, and demonstrating to the world a little magnanimity." What makes them think he is interested in such things?

[Dulcinea]

17. Were these countries chosen because there's no way...

...they'll ever outbid Halliburton?

"Keep your friends close & your enemies closer."

"Revenge is a dish best eaten cold."