And Blow Big

Regarding the Telegraph UK piece I referenced in my earlier post, it should be noted that this story is a particularly big deal, given the conservative slant of the Telegraph in general. When Al Rodgers wrote in his diary at Kos about another piece earlier this week in the LA Times detailing the Summer of Neocon Discontent and how they seem to be planning to pin it all on Bush, I did a little digging and came across this tidbit from May of last year:

Imagine our surprise, then, when this article in The London Times mentioned in passing that Kissinger and Perle both serve as Directors of The Daily Telegraph, a London newspaper well-known for its conservative slant on the news.

Reporters from The Telegraph (and only The Telegraph) discovered several important documents amidst the smoldering ruins of looted government buildings in Baghdad, immediately after the city fell to American forces.

In several Telegraph articles that made worldwide headlines, these documents revealed incriminating evidence against prominent opponents of the attack on Iraq, including France and Russia (nations which had taken stands against the invasion), UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter (who had said the invasion was unnecessary and unwise), and arch-liberal UK Member of Parliament George Galloway (who had publicly asked British soldiers to refuse orders to fight).

Reporters from The Telegraph (and only The Telegraph) discovered several important documents amidst the smoldering ruins of looted government buildings in Baghdad, immediately after the city fell to American forces.

In several Telegraph articles that made worldwide headlines, these documents revealed incriminating evidence against prominent opponents of the attack on Iraq, including France and Russia (nations which had taken stands against the invasion), UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter (who had said the invasion was unnecessary and unwise), and arch-liberal UK Member of Parliament George Galloway (who had publicly asked British soldiers to refuse orders to fight).

Let's do the math here. Two plus two equals:

"Bush could end up looking like the worst president since Jimmy Carter because of Iraq, and people are going to say, 'You got us into this mess,' " said one Washington source who considered himself a neoconservative and spoke on the condition of anonymity. "It's going to be nasty and bitter and brutal."

Seeding of the media, by a neocon, it must be noted, with Carter-Bush comparisons, during the Week of Failed Remembrance is particularly striking. NeoKarma. One of the things about being an Empty Suit into which various special interests pour their own agendas is that, once the whole construct begins to crumble, you end up being the battlefield upon which your "principles" fight for their lives. Two plus two equals four, after all.

What we have is the Perle contingent, pissed off to high hell about Chalabi, fighting the Tenet/CIA contingent (Allawi), while the Rumsfeld contingent is fighting for its life, and Bush will be the ultimate fallout. God willing. More from the LAT piece:

Neoconservatives had been pushing the United States to oust Saddam Hussein for years, and they exulted in his fall. But they grew concerned when officials in charge of the U.S.-led occupation in Iraq took steps the neocons did not favor.

One group of neoconservatives, including onetime Reagan Defense official Richard Perle, was unhappy that the White House didn't move more quickly to turn sovereignty over to Iraqis and put the country in control of dissidents such as Chalabi.

Other neocons, including William Kristol, former chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle and editor of the journal Weekly Standard, contended that the Pentagon under Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld had allowed security problems to spread by deploying too few troops.

In general, neocons felt as if "they had created a brilliant screenplay, and it had fallen into the hands of the wrong director," said one self-described neoconservative, borrowing a line from political satirist Bill Maher.

Screenplay. Bastards.