Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan has released a new tell all book; What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington Culture of Deception. I have not and will not read the book, simply because I find such pieces of literature to be nothing more than glorified National Enquirer articles. However, something did catch my eye this time around; McClellan’s assertions of the Iraq War and the consequent butchering of him led by the conservatives.
Karl Rove told FOX News Wednesday night that McClellan sounded more like a “left wing” blogger and that wasn’t the Scott he knew. Rush Limbaugh has declared it is the culture of Washington that forces otherwise conservative Republicans to alter their actions in an ill fated attempt to be liked. Certainly there are some questionable accusations in the book. McClellan makes an insinuation that a meeting between Rove and Scooter Libby was suspicious and came at the time of the Valerie Plame’s leak story. First, McClellan has no way of knowing what was said and second Plame’s identity was never in question and no law was broken.
Pushing aside the obvious publisher’s filler, McClellan does dive into the Iraq War and it is here where I swing from questioning McClellan to scratching my head at conservatives.
If there is one clear notion concerning the Bush administration it is the fact Iraq was handled poorly, so much so it teetered on incompetence. The mistakes are clear or more fittingly, few people were mistaken. First there was the insistence of Vice President Cheney that the U.S would be greeted as liberators and second was the egotistical, unwavering personality of Donald Rumsfeld, who micro-managed the military from the Washington. These two painfully wrong and foolish personalities created chaos in Iraq. It wasn’t until Rumsfeld was shown the door and Cheney was regulated to the Vice President’s role, a figure head, things turned for the better.
Gen. Petraeus was allowed to be a general by new Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the mistake of alienating thousands of former Iraqi military was corrected. The United States approached Iraq as if all Iraqis were fundamentalist, when in fact only a small percentage number are; the fact is most are capitalist and pick sides based on the largest paycheck. Americans also realized that the toughest kid on the block carries the day, something South Phily boys could have told them. When the military began wiping out the fundamentalist the average Iraqi felt safe and began taking up the fight, against Al Qaeda.
When these corrections were made the situation in Iraq stabilized. So, I ask why bash every person, including McClellan, who notes mistakes were made, the administration itself has admitted this with their drastic changes since 2006.
So why are conservative so defense? The reason is something I call the “Crazy Uncle” syndrome.
Yes, Uncle Fred might be crazy, but only I can call him that, when others do I become defensive and attack that person. Being right or wrong doesn’t matter, only the fact the attack is uncomfortable. That is case here, it is perfectly fine for Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh to question President Bush, but when the attacks are coming outside the family their first instinct is to defend and destroy.
Sometimes the facts are the facts and in this case the fact is clear and McClellan is on sound footing saying so.
