[iopscusa]

great post. Richard Perle in defense of GWB, Iraqi War and NeoConservatives.

[richardtavor]

What a self important wind bag.

[PetroniusMaximus]

Short version: we are rotting from within.

[highlander_UW]

Early in 2003 one senior foreign-service officer answered my question, “How many of your colleagues at the State Department share the president’s views on foreign policy?” with a quick and confident, “About 15 percent.” The number may well have been even smaller at the CIA, which made egregious intelligence errors and then applied its skill at tweaking and leaking to undermine the president who acted on its advice.4

The disease has so infused the US that I don't see how a sufficient amount of it be purged to allow the patient to survive. And by that I mean the state department, the media, politicians...the framework is rotten to the core. Building upon this structure is foolhardy and dangerous.

[livius]

Very interesting.

[ARepublicanForAllReasons]

bttt.

[Uncle Ike]

I wish I still had the link (and, for the record, I’m not about to try to find it before my first cuppa coffee at 5:30 on a Sunday morning...;~))

But, I learned all I ever needed to know about the US Dept of State a couple of years ago, when I saw a quote from the US Ambassador to the OAS —

After casting an ‘Abstain’ vote on a blatantly Anti-American resolution (put forth by Hugo Chavez, if memory serves) at an OAS meeting, he said that he really wanted to vote ‘AYE’ on the measure, but that probably wouldn’t look good......... (Gist is accurate, if the words aren’t exact)

[Leisler]

Condi Rice.
Colin Powel.
Mineta at the FAA.
Sandy Tenet.

Bush never fired anybody. Reagan fired an entire union.

If I was Bush I would of had fired/retired thousands.
There's no way that wouldn't of been a net positive

[GadareneDemoniac]

You can go back even farther: Ronald Reagan’s people were told by contemptuous bureaucrats that in a few years they would be gone but the bureaucrats would still be there.

To my way of thinking, if I were POTUS, I would be sure that my cabinet was on the same page as me, then if they got any resistance from these feather merchants, reassign them. No, you can’t be fired. Yes, your new assignment is in Antarctica.

[GiovannaNicoletta]

read later

[MadJack]

One of the most interesting things I’ve read for some time. Thanks.

[centurion316]

ping

[Kevmo]

Those who expect an Obama foreign policy to differ significantly from the most recent policy of the outgoing administration will be surprised by what is likely to be a seamless transition: not from White House to White House, but from State Department to State Department. On all the main issues—Iraq, Iran, Russia, China, Islamist terrorism, Syria, the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, relations with allies—Obama’s first term is likely to look like Bush’s second.
***Another interesting article you posted. Thanks. Again, due to long-windedness of the authors I’ll need to finish it later. But this is an interesting point worth considering.

[musicman]

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