Georgetown Professors Criticize New Hire (Douglas) Feith

[Robbien]

The appointment of a former Bush administration official to the School of Foreign Service faculty has drawn objections from a growing group of Georgetown professors who oppose policies promoted by the appointee and question the legitimacy of the hiring process.

The university announced May 1 that Douglas Feith (LAW ’78), a former undersecretary of defense who argued strongly for the military invasion of Iraq, will join the SFS as a visiting professor and distinguished practitioner in national security policy this fall.

Since then at least 35 professors have signed a letter claiming that many experts consider Feith’s role in justifying and executing the Iraq war “constitute war crimes … which the most sympathetic would have to think a highly dubious grounds for further employment.” The letter from faculty alleges that Feith “has sought to diminish the importance of the Geneva Conventions and has defended the use of torture in a number of public writings and talks.”

SFS Dean Robert Gallucci defended the appointment, saying it would provide students with the perspective of a policymaker from the administration.

. . .

Professors opposed to the appointment have also objected because Gallucci did not consult with faculty to the extent that he does for most appointments. “You have no way by which you can judge who is teaching … if this person’s academic credentials have not been examined,” said History Professor Judith Tucker, who has signed the letter. “My guess is a very large percentage of faculty are going to agree with the problem of process.”

http://www.thehoya.com/news/051906/news4.cfm

[Erika]

1. W shoving his far right philosophy down our throats

Galucci should be removed. There is no one who can justify our attack and invasion of Iraq other than the neocon Bushbots. They are out there by themselves.

[Robbien]

3. Most universities are being strong-armed by BushCo

into these kinds of hirings. Since this hire is outside of their normal hiring process, it does appear that Feith was forced upon them.

[Erika]

5. The right wing intimidation ain't working

They can sell it to the simple minded.

[cliss]

30. Agreed. They think their formula

works for everything. You WILL accept our plans, and you WILL take this man as a prof here at Georgetown.

OK: let's see how many students sign up for Feith's classes. They do have teacher evaluations at the end of the course. Let's see how many faculty parties Feith gets invited to, now that 35 of them have objected (that's actually quite a large number).

Can you just see a directive coming from the administration: Invite Doug Feith to the next Easter party...or else.

[William Seger]

2. Yeah, maybe they should hire some older Nazis, too

... to "provide students with the perspective of a policymaker" from the Third Reich.

[saigon68]

9. This guy is no longer available

osef Mengele was the infamous Angel o£ Death at the Nazi concentration camp in Auschwitz, Poland. As a doctor with Hitler's dreaded SS seeking to unlock a genetic basis for a superior race, he conducted macabre experiments, primarily on twin inmates, using them like laboratory animals. He also became known as the Great Selector for his role of deciding which of the prisoners were to be summarily killed as they were brought in by the carloads. For more than 34 years after World War II, he eluded his pursuers, and although he died in 1979, the world did not learn of his death until 1985, when the discovery of documents in Bavaria led to his grave in Brazil

[acmavm]

4. Why would any university want to hire the 'stupidest MF on earth' or

however Tommy Franks phrased it?

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. I guess his intellectual abilities

were not a criteria for hiring?

[annabanana]

8. for "access"?. . . . .

I have never seen such a crowd for "failing up".

[Dudley_DUright]

12. The quote was:

"I have to deal with the fucking stupidest guy on the face of the earth almost every day." -- Tommy Franks on Douglas Feith.

http://www.slate.com/id/2099277/

[sofa king]

15. I still can't figure that one out.

There are lots of words which fit the neoconservatives well, but "stupid" generally isn't one of them.

In fact, the written record is rife with examples of the neoconservatives being treated and described http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20031101fareviewessay82614/joshua-micah-marshall/remaking-the-world-bush-and-the-neoconservatives.html">separately from our current President, apparently in an attempt to separate a very stupid figurehead from his brilliant and diabolical underlings.

I have a hard time believing that Feith is actually stupid. Yet that word seems to have permanently attached itself to him.

I think it's a bad idea to simply dismiss our neoconservative friends as mentally deficient. Mentally imbalanced, perhaps, but not deficient. It would be unwise to underestimate them.

[acmavm]

16. Well, since everything the rocket scientist did while a member of the

bush** administration has been shown to be nothing more than clumsy and inept attempts to make the nation believe one of the biggest lies ever told (Saddam has WMDs), I don't think I'll give him a lot of points in the I.Q. area. He was one of the first of the bunch to have to crawl back under his rock for his poor performance. Never was it not known that the OSP was an organization to be trusted or that wasn't packed full of lying toadies.

[sofa king]

28. Idiocy or evil?

I would point out that in spite of how angry we are here at DU, a large and otiose sector of the American public responded to those inept lies precisely as the neocons wished they would, and in their own circles the 'cons have made little secret about their theories of political theatre and leadership's right to lie to the public.

They might be rightly accused of adhering to a complex and fundamentally false ideology, but so too did every brilliant person who ever served Manichaeism (an extinct religion which bears no resemblence whatsoever to the One True Religion which most of the rest of you serve today, ahem).

More than that, they've already gotten away with it. They're all filthy rich now and they have poisoned the well of American politics for the remainder of the 21st Century. Just take a look at how long the Fitzgerald investigation is taking. Any investigation or case which is initiated now, or any case delayed past 2006 is moot, because the lame-duck President will simply pardon everyone. That's all the more true if the '06 elections are stolen, as I predict they will be.

Sure, the truth is out there and many of us saw it from the beginning. But the truth didn't prevent the war, or the disgusting feeding frenzy which accompanies it. It didn't prevent the erosion of our rights here at home, which will never be returned in our lifetimes. Nobody is in jail for it and right now the grand count of people who might be jailed for it is exactly one: Scooter Libby.

What they've done is not stupid, what they did was manipulate the stupid. It's brilliant, in its own perverse and cynical way. Their plan was designed to destroy a democracy by frightening and bullying the public--a public which, taken on average, is only just beginning to realize what has happened, years after the fact. Yes, their diabolical achievements are tainted with monumental greed and incompetence, but the fact of the matter is that those evil people have grasped everything they ever wanted and more--and they're not going to give it back willingly, ever.

Evil has won, and stupidity had nothing to do with it--on their side of it.

[malaise]

7. Thank you professors

Expose the war criminals.

[JoFerret]

11. No place to run, no place to hide

...if there are no easy escape routes for criminals perhaps it might work as a deterrent.

[Zorra]

10. What's he gonna teach? Applied Fascism 101? n/t

[ladjf]

13. Your post is both funny and sad. How can a known idiot like

that get a teaching job at a major University?

[librechik]

14. personal relationships are everything in that group

it really doesn't matter if he's competent. it's the way he paddled your ass during frat pledge.

[ladjf]

20. I doubt that the was competent. He was the person who , after

the 9-11 attack ,suggested that we attack Al Qa-eda in South America rather than Afghanistan because they were expecting the attack in Afghanistan, in other words, a surprise attack.

[Trajan]

17. Isnt there a chair for him at Liberty University ? ....

Oh yeah ... he is jewish .....

MANY of Falwell's constituents don't mesh well with 'jews, blacks and catholics' ....

[Demeter]

18. Okay, Who Let Feith Out From Under His Rock Again?

Where's the garlic, stake, cross and silver bullet, honey?

[Terran1212]

19. Georgetown professors thank you for standing up!

[rodeodance]

21. second that one.

[Terran1212]

22. I honestly expected a place like Georgetown to just welcome anyone

Who was in the government, because of the way they want people like that working there. But for them to openly admit that this man is complicit in war crimes is great.

[LouisianaLiberal]

23. If memory serves,

he and Abe Schulsky, both PNAC signatories, ran the Office of Special Plans. Perhaps the professors can investigate what both the media and congress refuse to do. Prison is too good for these two.

[High Plains]

24. Feith should be in the Hague, not Georgetown

[Patsy Stone]

25. Doug, I'm sorry you have to go

but what would your dream job be?

Go Hoyas!

[bvar22]

26. The biggest item on Feith's resume....

...is a Spectacular Failure of International proportion.

Documentarians are already splicing together the clips for
"The Bush* Iraq Adventure...The Biggest Military Blunder of ALL Times"

How is Creating International Disasters a qualification for teaching our children?

Parents should threaten to remove their children from Georgetown if the University so much as allows ANY NeoCon promoter of Mass Murder to set foot on the campus!
This man is NOT who Jesus would want to guide the children!

The Democratic Party is a BIG TENT, but there is NO ROOM for those
who advance the agenda of THE RICH (Corporate Owners) at the EXPENSE of LABOR and the POOR.

[Canuckistanian]

27. I have a big problem with Feith teaching students

One need only look at his record of his statements and his management of the ill-conceived OSP to know that he is the worst fuck-up the country has ever seen.

Do we really need another neo-con influencing students?

[IndianaGreen]

29. Tommy Franks called Feith the "stupidest guy on the face of the earth"

IN Bob Woodward's Plan of Attack, General Tommy Franks (a war criminal in his own right) called Feith "the fucking stupidest guy on the face of the earth."

Dean Gallucci should be ashamed of himself for bringing onboard such a despicable character, and a criminal at that.