Molly Ivins: Marveling at the hypocrisy

[Dudley_DUright]

Well! I am certainly glad to see that we are telling off the French, Germans and Russians. I couldn't agree more with the Bush administration that those treacherous, undependable countries should be punished for their past cooperation with Saddam by being shut out of the $18.6 billion in Iraqi reconstruction contracts. No contracts for quislings! Someone's got to uphold the standards of morality and purity, and who better than us? As the president so often reminds us, this is a fight between good and evil.

I was particularly pleased when Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz took that sharp little dig at all three countries when he said a prime consideration for who gets the contracts was "protection of the essential security interests of the United States." And was there ever anything more inimical to our security than all those tons and tons of weapons of mass destruction we have found in Iraq? That'll teach those vodka-swilling Rooskies to think our security is not their affair. Way to go, Wolfie.

Of course, it was a little awkward that Wolfowitz gave the three Saddam-dealing nations that body slam just as former Secretary of State James Baker was setting out to ask them for money. That did sort of bring up Casey Stengel's plaintive question, "Doesn't anybody here know how to play this game?" But the beauty of our position is its moral clarity. Surely the French, Germans and Russians won't mind being cut out and dissed just when we're asking them for money -- it would be so petty of them.

I was especially entranced to read about the moral case for stiffing these nations on the op-ed page of The New York Times in an article by Claudia Rosett, senior fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. It says on its website that the foundation is against terrorism, thus distinguishing it from all the foundations in favor of terrorism.

more...

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=16168

[papau]

1. I love Molly!

:-)

[54anickel]

5. You took my line! Gotta love her.

[kimchi]

2. Molly nails it again!

I love that woman-she never fails to give me hope.

[Faygo Kid]

3. Molly is of course right - but what should have been the lead?

The other reason to "punish" these other countries is to assure that the gold stays in the pockets of Halliburton, et al. Molly acknowledges this in this excellent article. How much of this is truly to snub the other countries, and how much is to assure rewards for Bush's supporters, is tough to quantify. A lot of both, I fear. I tend to think the rewards for Bush supporters, by about 60-40. Both, however, are motivations. How much is to truly help the people of Iraq? None, except for domestic political considerations.

[HuckleB]

4. KICK

[Myra]

6. Ohmygod. I wonder how she decides what to write about.

There's so much.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

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[Cheesehead]

8. Claudia Rosett is the smoothest right wing propagandist

I've run across. Below is a link to the audio archive of an interview with Wisconsin Public Radio with the NYT piece as the topic. Claudia comes across as good-humored, almost giddy, but her content is as purely PNAC as I've heard. Check it out - it's the Thursday 12/18 10:00 show.