As I predicted. NeoCons are bailing!!

[Perky]

Conservatives Challenge Iraq Policy

By BARRY SCHWEID
AP Diplomatic Writer


WASHINGTON (AP) -- A leading conservative proponent of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq now says dysfunction within the Bush administration has turned U.S. policy there into a disaster. Richard Perle, who chaired a committee of Pentagon policy advisers early in the Bush administration, said had he seen at the start of the war in 2003 where it would go, he probably would not have advocated an invasion to depose Saddam Hussein. Perle was an assistant secretary of defense under President Reagan.

"I probably would have said, 'Let's consider other strategies for dealing with the thing that concerns us most, which is Saddam supplying weapons of mass destruction to terrorists,'" he told Vanity Fair magazine in its upcoming January issue.

When asked about the Vanity Fair article and Perle's criticism, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said, "We appreciate the Monday-morning quarterbacking, but the president has a plan to succeed in Iraq and we are going forward with it."

Other prominent conservatives criticized the administration's conduct of the war in the article, including Kenneth Adelman, who also served on the Defense Policy Board that informally advised President Bush. Adelman said he was "crushed" by the performance of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

The critiques in Vanity Fair come as growing numbers of Republicans have criticized Bush's policies on Iraq. The war, unpopular with many Americans, has become a top-tier issue in next week's congressional elections.

Perle said "you have to hold the president responsible" because he didn't recognize "disloyalty" by some in the administration. He said the White House's National Security Council, then run by now-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, did not serve Bush properly.
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[BOSSHOG]

1. richard perle should be tried, found guilty and hanged until dead

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

3. I think you mean "hanged until alive."

http://www.ftlcomm.com:16080/ensign/desantisArticles/2003_800/desantis855/RichardPerle.jpg

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

12. Kick for the DU Post of the Year Award.

[Swamp Rat]

13. kick for post #3

[donsu]

8. I'll second that

nt

[tjwash]

2. And the rats will also devour each other scrambling off that sinking ship.

[CountAllVotes]

4. yep and as I've posted before on this forum

LET THEM EAT THEIR OWN! ... and they will.

:dem: :kick:

[twilight_sailing]

5. Can't forsee the future?

What is this shit?

If I had known I would lose, I wouldn't have spent my life savings on lottery tickets, he might have said.

Good grief.

The fact of the matter is Mr. Perle helped start this failed war.
He spent our life savings on lottery tickets.

He is responsible for what he has done.

Coulda, woulda, shoulda is not a reasonable defense.

[global1]

6. "We Appreciate The Monday-Morning Quarterbacking, But The pResident.....

has a plan to succeed in Iraq and we are going forward with it"

This was said by White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe when asked about the VF article and Perle's criticism.

Sounds like "Stay The Course" to me.

[Bigmack]

7. This story is buried in most outlets...

...Perle and the others saying the war was a mistake.... was a tiny story on the bottom of page A-17 in the San Diego Union Trib today.

We have no media in this country.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Wel you are talking of the UT

the only use for that fish wrap is to line the bottom of the bird's cages

[Bigmack]

15. We're snowbirds in the winter...

and I love the three pages of comics.

The Copley papers are truly fishwrap.

[jobycom]

10. That's called a parachute.

Perle, one of the most guilty of the war criminals and probably largely responsible for the lies leading to the bloodbath in Iraq, senses the upcoming loss. He's trying to distance himself from his own criminal acts.

You often see this. Two men rob a store and kill the clerk. They get caught. One of them turns on the other. "It was all his idea, he was crazy, I would have never gone into that store if I'd known he would kill someone!" Often, it's the triggerman who turns first.

[porphyrian]

11. Eat yourselves, you treasonous fucks! - n/t

[Mme. Defarge]

14. So, who's in first class

with the life boats, and who is left in steerage?