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August 25, 2005
A Cover Blown
The story has cooled a bit of late on the Karl Rove/Valerie Plame leak story, though special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's 20-month investigation churns onward.
In today's LA Times, Tom Hamburger and Sonni Efron chronicle the saga that began in February 2003 with a little trip to Niger by an obscure former U.S. diplomat.
The read is a fascinating and revealing journey through the Iraq War run-up's rationalizing, Joe Wilson's inconvenient public disclosure about his findings (or lack thereof) in Niger, and the subsequent White House effort to discredit him which resulted in his wife being identified (possibly illegally) as a CIA operative.
Hindsight leaves us shaking our heads. Remarkable is the uncharacteristic ideology by which recent U.S. foreign policy has been shaped and executed. The Bush 43 White House has broken with decades of American foreign policy tradition (regardless of the political party in charge) of steering a largely middling and self-interested course in world affairs, to something radical and ideology-driven. The jury is still out on the long-term wisdom of such a strategy (early results are not promising), but it is clear the "neocon" agenda is an enormous gamble.
Still shocking are the lengths to which some in the administration went to mold (or manufacture) intelligence evidence to fit a pre-determined conclusion to invade Iraq. Whatever one's position on the wisdom of the war itself, there is no disputing now that the original rationale for invasion sold to the American public -- Saddam's imminent threat to the region and U.S. interests -- was long ago abandoned by the White House. We now know why.
Also interesting in retrospect is the long-held distrust of the CIA by the White House architects of the Iraq War, and the role that distrust played in pre-war jockeying at the highest government levels.
It's a great story in the abstract -- intrigue, cut-throat politics, crisis control -- pulp worthy of John Le Carre. Except there's nothing abstract about it. These were real decisions made by the people who run our country, with real, hard consequences for the entire world.
It's easy to get caught up in the game of politics. Karl Rove is a master of it -- winning, sliming and destroying your enemy, covering your tracks afterward -- always in the game. But for nearly 1,900 brave Americans, and thousands of Iraqis, this was their endgame.
When do we pass "Go"? When will this game that is the Iraq War be over, and who, if anyone, will win?
Posted by houtopia at August 25, 2005 02:30 PM