Dowd says Bush "dream team" makes Clinton look like Rommel...

[kentuck]

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/03/opinion/03DOWD.html

<snip>
The Bush foreign policy team always had contempt for Bill Clinton's herky-jerky, improvised interventions around the world. When it took control, it promised a global stewardship purring with gravity, finesse and farsightedness.

But now the Bush "dream team" is making the impetuous Clinton look like Rommel.

When your aim is remaking the Middle East, you don't want to get stuck making it up as you go along.



<snip>

The group that started out presuming it could shape the world is now getting shoved by the world.

[fencesitter]

1. You know, I don't get it...

If an idiot like me, who knows nothing of foreign policy, has no access to intelligence networks, but simply has been an observer, could see this all coming, could predict this chaos from the first war cries, why couldn't these guys?

[seemslikeadream]

2. exactly how I feel

that's why I think they absolutely knew the full ramifications of their actions and did not care.

Thanks kentuck for posting I heard Imus talking to Howard about it this morning/

[kentuck]

3. They were blinded by something...

Whether it was greed, ideology, stupidity, or whatever is open to debate..

[protect freedom impeach bush now]

6. PNAC cabal doesnt/didnt care

The Bushistas just do NOT give a damn.

The PNAC cabal could care less how many soldiers or
civilians die, because in their perverted logic --

the ends justify the means.

PNAC wants control.
PNAC will get control.
Even if it takes $600 Billion
Even if it takes 5,000 soldier who die.
Even if Iraq occupation lasts a generation (20 years+)

The PNACers just dont care.

[rock]

7. Kidneys

(Taps forehead)

[eleny]

4. "jejeunosity"

"Even officials with a combined century of international experience can behave with jejeunosity — if they start believing their own spin."

This sentence had me running to the online dictionary. "Jejeunosity"? What initially comes to mind is the Fab 5 of "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" fame. They keep telling people to "juj" the hair, "juj" the sleeves of a shirt. I can't see right wingers "jujing" - ever.

So, I hope that "jejunity" is the correct root word. For the record, it means dull and unsophisticated. Hmmmm... that's more like it.

[Divernan]

8. Or it could come from the French "jeune"

which would translate to puerile, childish and/or naive. I think that is more on point than simply unsophisticated.

[Devlzown]

10. I've heard of "jejune," but not

"jejunosity" or "jejunity." When am I going to break down and get me an OED?

[underpants]

5. She doesn't even mention the ignoring of N.Korea for a year

and the situation we are in now. Still a damning report card.

[Sick of Bullshit]

9. Clinton = Rommel??? WTF?

What kind of hare-brained comparison is that? Rommel was fighting for the bad guys.

[Clete]

11. Rommel wasn't one of them even though he had to command .

his army under Hitler. They eventually assasinated him by suicide because he was part of a plot to overthrow the Nazis.

[Devlzown]

12. Her comparison is intended to be humorous.

A sentence that mentions Clinton and Rommel in the same breath is likely to cause more than a few snickers. It's also a sort of backhanded compliment to Clinton. While acknowledging his impetuosity in foreign affairs, she is saying that the Clinton administration was a model of restraint and careful planning when compared to the current one.

[bleedingheart]

13. Wasn't Rommel the famed Desert Fox?

He didn't like Hitler but was an excellent military strategist if I recall and was murdered/suicide-ed..

[vision]

14. Yup

If Rommel would have the resorces he needed he probably would have won against even Patton. Rommel was brilliant and support Germany but not Hitler.