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Those who say that George W lied when he claimed in the 2000 election campaign that he was a “compassionate conservative” are simply ignoring the touching compassion that he has shown for one group: the neo-con architects of his disastrous misadventure in Iraq.
This set of warmongering dogmatists proved to be horribly wrong and dangerously incompetent, with their ideological fantasies costing America thousands of lives, billions of dollars, and invaluable global respect. They also effectively destroyed Bush’s presidential reputation. Yet, George very compassionately fired none of them, promoted many, and helped all to find comfortable sinecures.
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A web group called Think Progress has put up a posting called “Where Are They Now,” summarizing the happy fates of those failures. “Howling” Paul Wolfowitz, for example – who claimed our troops would be greeted as liberators and said the occupation would cost no more than $50 billion – was promoted by George to head the World Bank.
Likewise, Stephen Hadley, who pushed the spurious claim that Saddam Hussein was seeking uranium to build weapons of mass destruction, found that war lies can result in a career boost. Two years after getting Bush to spout this blatant lie, Hadley was promoted to national security advisor.
Then there’s Elliot Abrams, the guy who pled guilty for his infractions in the Iran-Contra scandal under Ronald Reagan. Bush resurrected him to be his chief advisor on the Middle East, a role Abrams used to promote the invasion and occupation of Iraq. In 2005, he was promoted to deputy national security advisor.
All of your neo-con favorites are here – Doug Feith, Richard “The Prince of Darkness” Perle, John Hanna, and so many more who did so much damage, yet continue in positions of influence. Check out this rogue’s gallery at www.thinkprogress.org.
“Sacrifice Is for Suckers,” The New York Times, July 6, 2007
“The Architects of War: Where Are They Now?” www.thinkprogress.org, July, 2007