Failure Upon Failure: By Bob Herbert

[kpete]

Op-Ed Columnist
Failure Upon Failure
Published: July 27, 2006

Imagine a surgeon who is completely clueless, who has no idea what he or she is doing.

Bob Herbert.

Imagine a pilot who is equally incompetent.

Now imagine a president.

The Middle East is in flames. Iraq has become a charnel house, a crucible of horror with no end to the agony in sight. Lebanon is in danger of going down for the count. And the crazies in Iran, empowered by the actions of their enemies, are salivating like vultures. They can’t wait to feast on the remains of U.S. policies and tactics spawned by a sophomoric neoconservative fantasy — that democracy imposed at gunpoint in Iraq would spread peace and freedom, like the flowers of spring, throughout the Middle East.

If a Democratic president had pursued exactly the same policies, and achieved exactly the same tragic results as George W. Bush, that president would have been the target of a ferocious drive for impeachment by the G.O.P.

more at:
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/07/27/opinion/27herbert.html
via:
http://www.democrats.org/a/2006/07/failure_personi.php

edit to include:
http://www.radicalleft.net/blog/_archives/2006/7/27/2166934.html

[babylonsister]

1. RECOMMEND! I hope to read the entire article ASAP.

Herbert is relentless; I really admire him for that.

[ixion]

2. great intro... it'll be nice when I can read the whole thing

;-)

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. Here's an obliging blog with the whole thing

http://welcome-to-pottersville.blogspot.com/2006/07/bob-herbert-failure-upon-failure.html

[ixion]

16. thanks!

:hi:

[Demit]

3. Herbert recalls the Pet Goat moment! God bless him for that.

'One did not get the sense, listening to this assessment from the commander in chief, that things would soon be well in hand. There was, instead, a disturbing sense of déjà vu. A sense of the president at a complete loss, not really knowing what to do. I recalled the image of Mr. Bush sitting in a Sarasota, Fla., classroom after being informed of the Sept. 11 attacks. Instead of reacting instantly, commandingly, he just sat there for long wasted moments, with a bewildered look on his face, holding a second-grade story called “The Pet Goat.” '

Too bad your second link doesn't print the column in full.

[kpete]

5. because I aim to please

I am looking for a full link

I thought this was one of his MOST powerful reads...

[babylonsister]

4. Here's a good review of the article (!):

http://mondoweiss.observer.com/2006/07/nyts-bob-herbert-runs-for-the-moral-daylight.html

NYT's Bob Herbert Runs for the Moral Daylight
FILE UNDER: Journalism, U.S. Policy in the Mideast

Bob Herbert had a breathtaking column in the Times today, condemning Israel for going overboard in its (just) retaliation for the Hezbollah strike, and faulting the U.S. for allowing it. "Neither Israel nor the United States can kill enough Muslims to win the struggle against terror," he writes, and says the United States should have been a friend to Israel and told it "the carnage has to cease."

The piece echoes other critiques of Israel-U.S. relations in the last few months: the Walt-Mearsheimer bombshell on the Israel lobby, and Tony Judt's attack in Haaretz on "The Country That Wouldn't Grow Up."

Like many adolescents Israel is convinced - and makes a point of aggressively and repeatedly asserting - that it can do as it wishes, that its actions carry no consequences and that it is immortal.

The shock is that Bob Herbert is now saying something along these lines on the Times Op-Ed page, a place given to Tom Friedman's explanations of all Israel's choices and David Brooks's construction of camouflaged bunkers for fleeing neoconservatives. I admire Herbert's courage and hope he stays on message. Many Americans are confused and disturbed right now, and share his instincts. Herbert has done what a columnist should do, and told them how to think.

[mod mom]

6. Herbert is a rare breed of journalist whom I highly respect.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. That's actually about his Monday oped article

but that's worth reading too: http://welcome-to-pottersville.blogspot.com/2006/07/bob-herbert-find-better-way.html

[babylonsister]

12. Thank you. I don't get the NYT so have to wait until the good

articles are available on line. I googled, and that was the first or second hit, so assumed it was more current.

[CatWoman]

9. K&R

:kick:

[EFerrari]

10. kpete, you are a DU treasure. K&R

:kick:

:hi:

[CrispyQ]

11. I especially like this part:

In two years and a few months Americans will vote again for president. I hope the long list of tragic failures by Bush & Co. prompts people to take that election more seriously than some in the past. If you were about to be lifted onto an operating table, you’d be more interested in the competence of the surgeon than in his or her personality.

Mr. Bush’s record reminds us that similarly careful consideration should be given to those who would be president.

Emphasis added by me.

In '04 after the debates, I couldn't beleive that anyone who watched them could still be convinced to vote for the dimson.

[wordpix2]

14. not that we LIKE his smirking, poking, rubbing personality but

I guess some neoCons and fundies think he's the second coming

[wordpix2]

13. "sophomoric neoconservative fantasy "---very good description of BushCo

[Cobalt-60]

15. It's only failure if

They were trying to do what they're supposed to.
Their apparent failures are just slag- the cost of doing business.
They're not stupid and they have all the cards. They're gotten what they wanted.
Foremost among their achievements has been the transfer of vast wealth from the treasury into the pockets of Republican clients.
Subsidiary to that was loading future generations with interest payments to Republicans to pay for it.
One of their other achievements has been the total takeover of national government by corporations. Big business is writing its own legislation.
For example, the callous disregard for the safety of our soldiers and the willful negligence of their responsibility to wounded veterans is pure corporate. No one else would come up with policies like that.
To consider these people anything but looters is a mistake.
The looting has been excellent so far.

[otohara]

17. Really Good

thanks for posting