Re: Drop the "Incompetence Theory"

[reprehensor]

"Well, I think the Neocons are pretty evil... but there's JUST NO WAY they could have WANTED internecine conflict in a post-Saddam Iraq!"

The doctrine is DESTABILIZATION.

NOT "DEMOCRACY BUILDING"

Neocon Advocates Civil War in Iraq as "Strategic" Policy

Daniel Pipes Finds Comfort in Muslims Killing Muslims

By JOHN WALSH

One of the abiding myths about the War on Iraq is that the neocons were too stupid to realize that they would confront an unrelenting, indigenous resistance to their occupation of Iraq. Unwittingly, the story line goes, they led the U.S. into a conflict which has now produced a civil war. But this simply does not fit the facts. The neocons clearly anticipated such an outcome before they launched their war as Stephen Zunes documents in Antiwar.com:

"Top analysts in the CIA and State Department, as well as large numbers of Middle East experts, warned that a U.S. invasion of Iraq could result in a violent ethnic and sectarian conflict. Even some of the war's intellectual architects acknowledged as much: In a 1997 paper, prior to becoming major figures in the Bush foreign policy team, David Wurmser, Richard Perle, and Douglas Feith predicted that a post-Saddam Iraq would likely be "ripped apart" by sectarianism and other cleavages but called on the United States to "expedite" such a collapse anyway."

Yet the line persists that the neocons had no idea what they were getting into. This cannot be correct as they think a lot about what they do and they plan carefully. Not only is that charge absurd on the face of it, but it is arrogant on the part of those who level it. And it is the worst political mistake possible ­ underestimating your adversary.

Now the neocons are beginning to advocate for civil war in Iraq quite openly. The clearest statement of this strategy as yet comes from pre-eminent neocon and ardent Zionist Daniel Pipes. In a recent piece in the Jerusalem Post, Pipes spills the beans. He writes:

"The bombing on February 22 of the Askariya shrine in Samarra, Iraq, was a tragedy, but it was not an American or a coalition tragedy. Iraq's plight is neither a coalition responsibility nor a particular danger to the West. Fixing Iraq is neither the coalition's responsibility, nor its burden. When Sunni terrorists target Shi'ites and vice versa, non-Muslims are less likely to be hurt. Civil war in Iraq, in short, would be a humanitarian tragedy, but not a strategic one."

Continued at link.

Stop cutting the Neocons slack, or they will use it to hang you.

[ClassWarrior]

1. This is what I've always said about Bush**. He's no idiot...

...he just plays one on TV.

NGU.

[BurtWorm]

6. No, he is an idiot.

A useful idiot.

[Richard Steele]

10. I agree. He is a puppet. His MASTERS are doing all this intentionally. nm

[IndyOp]

2. Word. (n/t)

:patriot:

[lapislzi]

3. Crazy like a fox

It's always a mistake to assume your enemy is an idiot, and I have never thought of bush and co as idiots. bush himself may be intellectually limited, but he is sly and canny. And he is advised by the best minds of their particular ideological bent. No, these people are far from stupid. This is deliberate, and we need to make that plain as often and as loudly as we can.

In fairness, when confronted with the dilemmma that one's government is incompetent or overtly evil, you can be excused for choosing "incompetence." Except that, as this essay points out, your theory is not borne out by the facts.

Good post, recommended.

[ProfessorGAC]

8. I'm Not Assuming Anything

He's an idiot. I'm sure of it. He's an empty suit that doesn't get in the way. They're not all idiots. They're devious, but they're pathetic two dimensional thinkers with far more power than they're capable of handling.
The Professor

[mirandapriestly]

15. I agree: sly & canny

but he has no intellectual curiosity and he's mentally lazy.

[Atman]

4. Why do you think Bush never budges?

If any of his "advisors" (read: puppetmasters) has thought this was a big mistake, there would have been firings, staff replacements, a shake-up in the administration. But Bush just keeps getting out there and saying things are going swell, and Americans keep saying "he's an idiot! How can he say that!" He can say that because he isn't lying at all. Things ARE going swell. And that is why no one gets fired and no policy changes...on what grounds? Why should anyone lose their job when everything is going EXACTLY as planned?

I've been saying this all along.

Great post, btw. Thanks!

[mopinko]

5. yup

greatest disguise in history.

[leveymg]

7. Bush's Iraq policy: a coalition of exceedingly astute and truly clueless

actors. The agenda was conceived by the Perle, Wurmser, Feith, et. al neocon cabal in the mid to late 1990s. It was ambitious and audacious, even though it would predictably end in huge casualties for any American Administration stupid enough to provide the muscle to carry it out.

[democraticinsurgent]

9. Just like 9/11

Bushco has willingly accepted incompetence theory as a cover for their almost certain involvement in planning and executing the "terrorist" attacks. Better to look a little slow footed than be charged with criminal acts, isn't it now?

Thanks for the good reminder/post, reprehensor!

[leveymg]

11. Incompetence is a crime. It's called "negligent homicide"

Convictions for 3000 counts under that statute would do just fine, IMHO.

[sutz12]

12. Up to about 5500 and counting... nt

[leveymg]

13. You're right: 3000+2300+1460

or thereabouts. And that's just the American casualties in the big disasters. But who's counting the others?

[Just Me]

14. They're superb strategists but damned sick policy-makers.

In terms of progressing the democratic and economic health and security of this nation, their policies not only SUCK they are the anti-thesis of the governance created by our Constitution!!! Sure, those policies successfully concentrate power and wealth. Sure, those policies advance the interests of a handful of corporacrats. However, those policies are destructive to democracy, our republic, our constitutional rights/liberties, our economy and our people.

But, see,...these assholes don't give a damn about country or their fellow citizens. They believe morals are a pain in the ass and that natural rights include the strong oppressing the weak. That's what these self-serving predatory barbarians believe: it's their right to exploit others, even their fellow Americans. And, yes, one of their means of exploiting others is via the "doctrine of destabilization", as you call it. They've used that vehicle here and abroad.

I agree with you that "incompetence" is a very weak characterization of these neoconsters because everything they do is ON PURPOSE: the lying, the manipulation, the secrecy, the destruction, the division. It's all ON PURPOSE.

[bridgit]

16. 'they' refer to it as "construclive chaos", and if you live in a gated...

community, or on a ranch a 1/2 mile from an access road, with a pile of money to ride it out; the phrase, 'they' feel, will be ultimately born into 'from chaos comes order' http://www.freedomdomain.com/secretsocieties/skull01.html

[KittyWampus]

17. So what you might be saying is to identify the GOAL of a political group

or person.

What is a groups actual goal?
Is it the same as the stated goal?

I played poker for years, if someone gets a royal straight flush in a game with no wild cards, it is pretty rare. Getting two such hands in a row is hard to believe... to get three in a row means something isn't cricket.

As a group, the NeoCons certainly seem to find themselves with 'winning hands' time after time despite whatever casualties or setbacks our country, citizens or troops might have to endure.

[Comadreja]

18. This is why they persist in indiscriminate imprisonment

of Iraqi men and boys, mostly. They want to reduce the ability of their "host" (as in parasite) to resist their invasion and thus thwart their grand plans to dominate the entire ME. Since women and the elderly must hide indoors most of the time, only men are out when most carbombs go off. The bodies that keep turning up are men. I believe that the US has given up trying to infiltrate the partisan groups, and has adapted a policy of either killing or psychologically breaking military age males. Israel has been doing the same. Hell, our own prison system has been doing something similar to the black community through the "Drug War."

[autorank]

19. Thanks Reprehensor. This fills a gap.

From a movement whose founder watched "Gun Smoke" (50's TV series) for political and moral inspiration, nothing should surprise us. What a quotation: "When Sunni terrorists target Shi'ites and vice versa, non-Muslims are less likely to be hurt. Civil war in Iraq, in short, would be a humanitarian tragedy, but not a strategic one." (D.Pipes)

They are complete idiots...in positions of power throughout this country, vital positions.

That we've got such stupid people so well places is just frightening.

What have we done by allowing this.

Who benefits?

Anyone in the defense/security industry, that's who. The neocons are the useful idiots of the defense industry. Have been since the Ford administration. Overestimate, lie, use crazy logic (the fact that we can't find the secret bases proves they exist), etc. This is their MO but it's for a purpose. It provides the cover for exponential sums for defense, which in turns feeds the intellectually lazy and dishonest politicians who benefit from defense industry largess. And they've got it set up so that any questions about defense expenditures generates a charge of "weak" or worse.

Sweet.

In the mean time, back on planet earth, we are looking at irreversible global warming that will culminate in a three foot rise in the sea level over the next 90 years (and much more). I wonder how the neocons will spin that? Lets see...the neocon response to global warming: "When environmentalists target environmental problems people will fear a loss of jobs, etc. This will generate a false conflict and prevent any real changes in defense spending for an extended period of time. Hence, the struggle to save the earth from catastrophic changes may seem wasteful, but it will postpone reductions in defense spending." Thanks for the memories Leo.

[Gregorian]

20. Doesn't the PNAC mention "chaos"?

Thank you for the reminder. Good post that's needed for that reality jolt. I recall reading a damning statement about them wanting or needing chaos. We knew this. But "our" reality says this would never be. So we revert back to sane thinking. That doesn't work.

After all, why the mideaval tactics of wild animals on prisoners? That's the most incredible thing I've ever seen. Chaos results in their ability to take over. Just like bank robbers with guns, real or fake.

[pinto]

21. Locking.

We discourage reposting from highly unreliable, bigoted, or inflammatory sites. Antiwar, cited in this piece, falls in that category.

Thanks for your consideration.