Bush Is Still Surrounding Himself With Neocons

Don't let Bush's expressions of regret ("I chose the wrong words, even though I still say I did the right thing") fool you. If the sign of an idiot is that he does not learn from his mistakes, Bush is still an idiot. This post takes a closer look at some of the ideological buffons with whom Bush still surrounds himself.

Let's start with Karl Zinsmeister, the new chief domestic adviser to President Bush, who:

- is a neo-con who worked as editor-in-chief of the American Enterprise Institute's magazine, the National Review.

- once wrote that many of the journalists in Kuwait were "bursting with knee-jerk suspicions and antagonisms for the warriors all around them. A significant number are whiny and appallingly soft."

- also wrote that "people in Washington are morally repugnant, cheating, shifty human beings."

- wrote a June 2005 article for the American Enterprise Institute called "The War Is Over, and We Won."

- took a newspaper profile of himself, altered quotes and text, then re-posted it on another Web site without noting the changes or asking for approval. And may be sued for doing so.

PS: I'll bet my schlong he is also a Zionist Jewish schmedrick schmuck.

Now add that story to this one from TPMmuckraker:

Two weeks ago, Amir Taheri published an op-ed in Canada's National Post about an Iranian law that forced Jews to wear a yellow stripe. The story, reminiscent of Nazi Germany, quickly provoked outrage, but was just as quickly revealed to be a total fabrication. It also ran in the New York Post.

Apparently this is just the sort of reliable advice that President Bush needs. Yesterday, Taheri had a face-to-face with the President as one of a small group of "experts" on Iraq that visited the White House.

Press Secretary Tony Snow had more details on these "experts":

Q: Can you give us a readout on the President's meeting this morning with the Iraq experts?

MR. SNOW: Yes. Oh, my goodness, I forgot to bring the list. But actually -- do you have the list, Fred? Yes, it was an interesting meeting. What you ended up having was -- I've got all the names but one written down here. We had Wayne Downing, Barry McCaffrey, Michael Vickers, Amir Taheri, Fouad Ajami and Raad Alkadiri. And you had a combination there of military men and also scholars who are students of Iraq. And it was an interesting discussion that touched upon cultural issues, on political issues, on the state of affairs in Iraq. You had a number of people who've been there recently, General McCaffrey having returned just last month from his latest visit. Fouad Ajami last year had the occasion to sit down and speak with the Ayatollah Sistani, Ali al Sistani.

The President wanted to hear about that. And what he really wanted first was to get their honest opinions -- and, again, these were honest opinions -- about how things are going in Iraq, about the status and viability of the government, and what the United States needs to do on the way forward. The one thing that was of mutual agreement is that, number one, this is an important enterprise, and number two, that we can and will win it. But those are sort of the general outlines of the conversation.

Who the fuck are these people who have Bush's ear on Iraq? Well, I've chased down a few links. Basically:

- Wayne Downing is a non-executive director of Metal Storm Ltd (a Brisbane company that makes electronic weapons). He was a lobbyist for Allawi's disgraced (CIA-backed) INC and an early agitator for war with Iraq. Typical quote: "Quite frankly, I think one of the problems that we're having is that the news media, the opposition to the war are framing this entire discussion in the terms of casualties and casualties only."

- Barry McCaffrey is on the Board of Trustees of Mitretek, which runs the Center for State Homeland Security. McCaffrey was a co-signatory to a PNAC neoconservative letter to Congress dated January 28, 2005. In August 2005 he said there were "36 Iraqi battalions right now that are capable of fighting engagements on their own."

- Michael Vickers is Director of Strategic Studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. He is former CIA and Special Forces. He is considered one of Andrew Marshall's neoconservative "acolytes" (a.k.a. the "Jedi Knights") - along with people like Cheney, Rumsfeld, Perle, Armitage and Wolfowitz.

- Amir Taheri works for the neoconservative group Benador Associates ('nuff said!).

- Fouad Ajami also works for Benador Associates and writes for (be impressed!) News Of The World.

- Raad Alkadiri is a director of PFC Energy and a former Policy Adviser and Assistant Private Secretary to the UK Special Representatives to Iraq. Aside from that, he seems like the odd one out in this little soirée.

Bush is an arrogant fool who is not going to change. He is cocooning himself from uncomfortable realities. All the people above have clear agendas (both ideological and business agendas). But who hand-picked these people to meet with Bush? More importantly, how on earth are things in Iraq ever going to get better if the fools in the White House cannot even admit (truthfully, not just in vague TV sound-bites) that they have made massive mistakes from the very beginning?

There is only one solution: a clean sweep of the White House. As long as Bush remains President, Iraqis will continue to die and US troops will never come home.

US OUT NOW! BUSH OUT NOW!