Remember the fictional “Pottery Barn Rule” that then Secretary of State Colin Powell used to caution President Bush about Iraq (“If you break it, you own it”)?
Perhaps today’s events should be referred to as the “Time Machines are Fictional Rule”.
Is anyone out there buying into any part of the President’s scheme to meet with past Secretaries of State and Defense to listen to their input on the Iraq situation? I certainly am not. This is clearly a PR move if ever there was one. Have them all in, let them all have their say and ignore every word that was said. Meanwhile bask in the glow of having a few of them speak highly about the willingness of this President to take such a bold, bipartisan step. I’m sure this will be ridden for every mile it’s worth on the Rightwing radio shows.
It’s rather easy to welcome bipartisan discussion when you go into it with a good set of earplugs.
Why am I so certain that this is a stunt? Because if the President cared at all what any of these people had to say, he’d have had them in before he laid a giant turd in the Middle East. Wouldn’t it have been prudent to put this much effort into not having made the mess in the first place? With all those talented people in the room the President only allowed 5-10 minutes of open exchange of ideas. What a joke.
Iraq is not getting any better and, if God forbid I’m wrong and this is not a PR stunt, then things are clearly going much worse than any of us know for this President to even consider listening to outside opinion on his actions. Every indication that we’ve had shows more terrorist activity going on all over the world. To suggest that things are just peachy because we haven’t been hit is ludicrous, short-sighted and akin to simply looking the other way during a car crash and then claiming there’s no problem at the intersection you’re at.
This is either a complete PR stunt or else our leader is out of ideas. Which of these is the better scenario?
