No honour among thieves

In spite of the Iraq war going to hell in a hand basket, the prince of darkness thinks Bush is whimping out.

The Bush administration is beginning to appease rather than confront America‘s enemies, a former chairman of the Defense Policy Board and leading neoconservative thinker said yesterday, describing the president as “a failure” who is proving powerless to impose his views on his administration.

Richard Perle offered a withering assessment of the president’s impotence at a meeting of the Hudson Institute in New York, saying American foreign policy is being applied by an out-of-control State Department.

Of course, what Perle really means is that the war he most yearns for, with Iran, risks not materializing if the Bush administration does indeed take the advice as laid out in the Baker report and speak to Iran.

“We have already seen a change in policy towards Iran,” he said. “It is now firmly back in the hands of the Department of State.”

Spare a though for the poor sod. Diplomacy is back on the table and militarism may not be the first option. How that must upset his indigestion This is the man that lambasted the CIA for being too conservative during the lead up to the Iraq war, but was more than happy to see them take the blame for the so called “intelligence failure”.

In typical neocon style, Perle displays a predictable refusal to acknowledge the role he played in the illegal and unnecessary invasion of Iraq, which has now become FUBAR. Apparently lost on Perle is the minor detail that it was the very mess he helped to create that has bogged the US military down in Iraq, thus forcing the administration to turn to Iran and others for help.

The State Department is “institutionally disposed to settle problems through compromise, to settle rather than to fight,” Mr. Perle said. This is dangerous because many enemies of America remain who are prepared to continue fighting when offered a settlement. “You cannot settle with Al Qaeda. You cannot settle with Islamist extremists. Those who suggest we can do great damage,” he said.

This man can’t seem to breathe without pouring for the lies by the pound. How many times can you mention Al Qaeda in a sentence and ignore the fact that Iran assisted the US going after Al Qaeda after 911? They even captured a number of top AQ operatives and offered to hand them over to the US, but were turned down. Perle resents the fact that the deranged invasion and occupation of Iraq has not only elevated Iran’s influence in teh region, but handed Iraq to them on a platter.

The stark reality is that sooner or later, Cheney’s empty threats aside, the United States will be compelled to withdraw from Iraq, and Iran will likely gain influence in the region and probably eventually obtain nuclear weapons. A fitting banner for Cheney’s aircraft carrier speech would have been “Mission Accomplished – for Iran.”

It’s a mystery why this bottom feeder continues to be given any kind of audience.

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