(LA Times Editorial) On message, under fire

[pinto]

EDITORIALS

On message, under fire

THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION has been both admired and mocked for its "message discipline" — the almost unprecedented ability of its top officials to speak in unison in public. The president's top advisors, scornful of the Clinton administration's internal feuding and all-night policy hash-sessions that ended inconclusively, vowed to make decisions promptly and execute the president's policies crisply. Their seeming success in requiring loyalty and enforcing discipline has been the envy of many a rueful Washington Democrat.

But as President Bush's woes mount, so do the ranks of defectors from his administration. With the passion of the formerly censored, these dissenters are belatedly spewing forth their stories.

Lawrence B. Wilkerson, former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell's chief of staff, compares the administration's decision-making process to that of a "dictatorship" (see his article on the opposite page). Robin Raphel, the State Department's outgoing coordinator for Iraq assistance, was quoted in this newspaper over the weekend as saying the Iraq invasion was ordered prematurely, its timing dictated from on high based on "clear political pressure." Soon after, Raphel said, it became clear that U.S. officials "could not run a country we did not understand…. It was very much amateur hour."

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In such a Soviet-style atmosphere of political correctness, is it any wonder that the bureaucracies under Bush began to tailor their reports to what they knew their masters wanted to hear?

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-dissent25oct25,0,5281225.story?coll=la-news-comment-editorials


see also

The White House cabal
By Lawrence B. Wilkerson, LAWRENCE B. WILKERSON served as chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell from 2002 to 2005.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-wilkerson25oct25,0,7455395.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions

and related DU thread, here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5159762