Impeachment & Treason – Page 25 – Public Intelligence Blog

2006/12/072009/12/04

Review DVD: 9/11 Mysteries – Part I: Demolitions

5 Star, 9-11 Truth Books & DVDs, Crime (Corporate), Crime (Government), Impeachment & Treason, Intelligence (Public), Misinformation & Propaganda, Power (Pathologies & Utilization), Reviews (DVD Only)

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Nails It!,

December 7, 2006

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Edit of 11 Jun 09 to fix Tarpley and add links.

I read a lot, but lately I have been discovering the real value of non-fiction DVDs. This is one of the best, one of the most important DVDs that I have ever seen. I recommend it without reservation.

Although I am a very conservative person, my views have been radicalized by the superb non-fiction coming from Webster Tarpley, Jim Marrs, and Michael Ruppert, among others.

This DVD systematically and logically covers the power blackout that turned off the security camaras and access devices, the withdrawal of the bomb-sniffing dogs, the heavy dust each morning in the days preceeding 9-11, the secondary explosions that strongly suggest a planned demolition of three buildings (one of them, WTC 7, not hit at all), and–quite interesting–the asbestos problem that made the buildings, built in the 1960's–a real loser unaffordable to fix or take down. 9-11 was literally a $7 billion bonanza for its owners, at one stroke destroying the bulk of the complex to be cleaned up at taxpayer expense, and paying a DOUBLE insurance premium (in court, the claims that the two airplanes were two separate incidents rather than one coordinated attack, doubled the money paid out by the insurance companies). Bottom line: I think the US Government “let it happen” for its own reasons, and Larry Silverman was tipped off and it was Larry Silverman, not the US Government, that brought the buildings down. If this is obvious to me after a cursory examination of public materials, I have to ask myself: 1) how much did Rudy Guliani get for scooping and dumping to destroy the crime scene? and 2) is the insurance company part of the scam, or just stupid?

I have to say, on the basis of all my reading and my own past experience as a professional intelligence officer, that I am certain of one thing: this has not been properly investigated; and I am fairly certain of a second thing: 9-11 was known to be happening by a handful in the US Government and a handful in Israel as well as Pakistan, and it was welcomed as a cataclysmic event that would also be financially profitable to another handful. All of the suspicious activity began when Larry Silverman took possession of the complex.

Although I am less inclined to believe–without a proper investigation–that 9-11 was in fact made to happen at the instigation of Dick Cheney among others, I do believe there is enough evidence about neo-conservative views that such an event was needed, to *demand* a public investigation. The 9-11 Commission was a whitewash, actually criminal in its negligence.

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2006/11/272009/12/04

Review: The Trial of Henry Kissinger

5 Star, Empire, Sorrows, Hubris, Blowback, Impeachment & Treason, Truth & Reconciliation

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Beginnng of US Truth and Reconciliation with Rest of World,

November 27, 2006

Christopher Hitchens

This extraordinary book is the “first word” about Henry Kissinger's culpability for war crimes that may yet see him hanged (highly unlikely but worth mentioning for “awakening” value); but it also brings together a number of themes discussed in more detail by other authors, and I want to start with those before detailing the author's superb and very studied denunciation of Henry Kissinger, a denunciation all the more timely as Donald Rumsfeld is charged with war crimes where a US general officer is testifying against him.

First off, there is the matter of the end of sovereign immunity. This trend could be perceived when the United Nations established that human rights and human security were sufficient to warrant INTERVENTION, and is detailed in the most amazing intellectual and legal review of Philip Allott of Cambridge, in his book HEALTH OF NATIONS: Society and Law Beyond the State, in which he explicitly calls for the overturning of the Treaty of Westphalia, and the re-examination of borders carved by the colonial powers and against hundreds of years of tribal distinction.

Then there is the matter of government integrity. It is now undeniably established that the US Government and the Executive in particular, lies to Congress and the public as a matter of routine. These lies tend to be exposed in the ten-fifteen year time frame (some sooner, as with CIA and other whistle-blowers four years into the war on Iraq), but at the twenty five year mark, there is a clear “explosion” of illumination. Robert Parry, LOST HISTORY: Contras, Cocaine, the Press, & Project Truth” is one book in this vein; while Larry Beinhart's FOG FACTS: Searching for Truth in the Land of Spin addresses a different aspect.

Finally, one has the general matter of whether the US as a Nation is represented overseas as America the Good, which most US citizens would like to believe, or America the war-mongering, predatory, immoral “rogue nation.” The books documenting the latter are legion, from Derek Leebaert's THE FIFTY YEAR WOUND to Chalmers Johnson SORROWS OF EMPIRE to my fellow moderate Republican Clyde Prestowitz's ROGUE NATION: American Unilateralism and the Failure of Good Intentions. On the corporate side, one has many many books, among which John Perkins, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, and William Greider's THE SOUL OF CAPITALISM: Opening Paths to a Moral Economy, stand out.

My point is that this author's crucification of Henry Kissinger on the basis of documented facts, in a historical context, is NOT a “hit job” or by any stretch of the imagination anything less than a sensible legal document that is a precursor to Kissinger inevitably being brought to justice.

Now to the specifics. The author focuses on the manner in which Kissinger specifically helped Nixon undermine the Paris peace discussions that could have brought Hubert Humphrey to office, with the result that fully 20,000 additional Americans were killed in Vietnam, and hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese, over the next four years. Henry Kissinger stands indicted–personally indicted–for the totally unnecessary and immoral death of 20,000 US and 100,000+ others (closer to millions, actually, but how many life sentences can he receive…)

The author:

1) focuses on the manner in which Kissinger explicitly supported specific dictators in their genocidal endeavors, violating the U.S. Constitution and a variety of laws both domestic and international.

2) excels at discussing details, such as the indiscriminate nature of B-52 bombings, and points out that we put twice as much tonnage of bombs on Vietnam as were fired during our entire World War II campaign.

3) lays out the manner in which Kissinger managed “two track” policies in which the State Department and the Ambassador were kept in the dark, and covert illegal operations were carried out by the CIA and the defense attaches. Chile, Indonesia, and Greece are featured.

4) is careful to note that in this book he is covering only four specific major documentable aspects of Kissinger's high crimes–he lists many others that do not make the cut but are equally reprehensible, such as the betrayal of the Kurds, the support for apartheid in South Africa, the Central American games, and the tortured regime of the Shah of Iran

5) suggests hat Kissinger pioneered US sponsored–state sponsored–terrorism in the modern era; he also pioneered rendition, that nasty little word that means “kidnap people so they can be tortured by others”.

The author does not prove nor claim that Kissinger profited from his public position, but draws out compelling relationships between Kissinger, his private gain, and his political interventions. Much information remains to be revealed, I have no doubt that it will reveal Kissinger to be a world-class criminal guilty of betraying the American public and helping many dictators abuse their own populations.

The author closes with a concise legal summary that I suspect is as good a description as one can achieve of Kissinger's living nightmare. This book inspires, this book justifies, this book DEMANDS a truth and reconciliation commission to investigate both what has been done against Americans by their own government “in our name,” and what has been done against the publics of the world, again “in our name.”

I will close with three snippets.

The author suggests that now that international law has turned a corner, Kissinger must shudder with every dictator's arrest, fearful of what their testimony will disclose.

The author quotes General Taylor, reflecting on Vietnam in 1971, as saying that in comparison with the accusations and judgments of the Nuremberg trials, the White House and the senior generals serving in Vietnam clearly qualified for similar accusations and judgments.

Finally, the author suggests that Kissinger is not in fact an example of power as the ultimate aphrodisiac, but rather of power as the ultimate pornography. Norman Cousins, in The Pathology of Power, would certainly agree.

I concur with this author, and suggest that he has been too kind. America cannot afford any more pathological monsters in the White House. It's time we returned to America the good.

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2006/11/122009/12/04

Review: Wild Fire

5 Star, Banks, Fed, Money, & Concentrated Wealth, Censorship & Denial of Access, Congress (Failure, Reform), Crime (Government), Executive (Partisan Failure, Reform), Impeachment & Treason, Misinformation & Propaganda, Power (Pathologies & Utilization)

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Fiction Maybe, Reality, Very Much So,

November 12, 2006

Nelson DeMille

I generally only read non-fiction, but increasingly in the past fifteen years I have found that fiction of a particular type can be stunningly effective as a truth serum. Winn Schartau's TERMINAL COMPROMISE in the 1990's, about an electronic Pearl Harbar ultimately found to have been set in motion by the National Security Agency, is one such book. This is another.

For a NON-FICTION preview of what the Neo-Cons *thought* they were going to be able to do (out of touch with reality as they are), buy this book and ALSO buy (or at least read my review of) “Endgame: The Blueprint for Victory in the War on Terror” by Thomas McInerney and Paul Vallely. These two seriously overweight generals, in retirement, and well prior to the elective war on Iraq, laid it all out–Iraq, then Iran, then Syria, then Egypt and Jordan, all by force of arms. They are NUTS, but they are also very very representative of the kind of ignorant lunacy that is accepted currency–indeed a qualification for appointment–in the Bush-Cheney regime. With Goldman Sachs in charge of the U.S. Treasury, and Paul Wolfowitz, a proven immoral liar in charge of the World Bank, do not think for a minute that Rumsfeld's being replaced by a more gracious clone (Bob Gates, who is NOT an intelligence professional, but rather a White House staff professional), is going to change anything.

Wild Fire is on target. I used tobelieve that the Kennedy's were both assassinated for planning to interfere with the extreme right, and especially the Wall Street extreme right that is close to Israel.

EDIT of 10 Dec 07: With the publication of Someone Would Have Talked: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the Conspiracy to Mislead History we must acknowledge that the Warren Commission was indeed a cover-up, but that Cuban exiles trained by CIA (a form of extreme right, but not from Texas) did the assassination. CIA and the Secret Service knew it was going to happen, Bobby Kennedy informed JFK, and the latter very foolishly chose to ignore the warning.

The author might just as easily have included a pre-emptive attack on Iranian nuclear plants by Israel, something that many expert observers expect will happen before December 2006 unless the Congress makes it clear that ALL financial support for Israel will be cut off, ALL military assistance for Israel will be cut off, if they do this. You can be certain that the extreme right is egging Israel on and promising American complacency in the face of such an attack.

This book, like the movie Enemy of the State [Blu-ray] is most helpful to those who wish to understand what Norman Cousins tells us in The Pathology of Power – A Challenge to Human Freedom and Safety Absolute power really does corrupt–where the author does not venture, and perhaps he will honor us with these thoughts in the next book, is that the U.S. Government–both Republican and Democratic–is nothing more than “the best of the servant class.” Behind the U.S. Government are a select handful of bankers and a select inter-locking group of corporate boards that are more than happy to harvest profit from the hapless individuals who continue to believe that America is a democracy and that capitalism as practiced today is moral. Not so.

Fiction of this caliber is often a pre-cursor to a “coming out” of non-fiction, such as one can see in the growing 9-11 Truth movement, and the emergent demand by select Senators for complete transparency in government funding. I strongly recommend this book as an eye-opener. It is very very real.

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2006/10/042010/05/31

Review: State of Denial–Bush at War Part III

5 Star, Asymmetric, Cyber, Hacking, Odd War, Atrocities & Genocide, Complexity & Catastrophe, Congress (Failure, Reform), Crime (Corporate), Crime (Government), Democracy, Diplomacy, Economics, Empire, Sorrows, Hubris, Blowback, Executive (Partisan Failure, Reform), Force Structure (Military), Impeachment & Treason, Insurgency & Revolution, Intelligence (Government/Secret), Iraq, Justice (Failure, Reform), Military & Pentagon Power, Misinformation & Propaganda, Power (Pathologies & Utilization), Priorities, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Security (Including Immigration), Terrorism & Jihad, Threats (Emerging & Perennial), True Cost & Toxicity, Voices Lost (Indigenous, Gender, Poor, Marginalized), War & Face of Battle

Stake in the Heart of the W Presidency

October 4, 2006

Bob Woodward

Here are the highlights I drew out that make this book extraordinary and worth reading even if it leaves one with a political hang-over:

1) The Federal Government is broken, and was made worse by a President who knew nothing of foreign policy, a Vice President who closed down the inter-agency policy system, and a Secretary of Defense who was both contemptuous of the uniformed military and held in contempt by Bush Senior.

2) My opinion of the Secretary of Defense actually went UP with this book. Rumsfeld has clearly been well-intentioned, has clearly asked the right questions, but he let his arrogance get away from him. Given a choice between Admiral Clark, a truth-telling transformative person, and General Myers, an acquiescent warrior diminished to senior clerk, Rumsfeld made the right choice for his management style, and the wrong choice for the good people in our Armed Forces. I *like* Rumsfeld's Anchor Chain letter as it has been described, and wish it had been included as an Appendix. Rumsfeld got the control he wanted, but he sacrificed honest early warning in so doing.

3) This book also improves my opinion of the Saudis and especially Prince Bandar. While I have no tolerance for Saudi Royalty–the kind of corrupt debauched individuals that make Congressman Foley look like a vestal virgin–the Saudis did understand that Bush's unleashing of Israel was disastrous, and they did an excellent job of shaking up the President. Unfortunately, they could not overcome Dick Cheney, who should resign or be impeached for gross dereliction of duty and usurpation of Presidential authority.

4) Tenet's visit to Rice on 10 July is ably recounted and adds to the picture. It joins others books, notably James Risen's “State of War,” “Hubris,” FASCO” and “The End of Iraq in presenting a compelling picture of a dysfunctional National Security Advisor who is now a dysfunctional Secretary of State–and Rumsfeld still won't return her phone calls…..

5) The author briefly touches on how CIA shined in the early days of the Afghan War (see my reviews of “JAWBREAKER” and “First In” for more details) but uses this to show that Rumsfeld took the impotence of the Pentagon, and the success of CIA, personally.

6) The author also tries to resurrect Tenet somewhat, documenting the grave reservations that Tenet had about Iraq, but Tenet, like Colin Powell, failed to speak truth to power or to the people, and failed the Nation.

7) Rumsfeld recognized the importance of stabilization and reconstruction (and got an excellent report from the Defense Science Board, not mentioned by this book, on Transitions to and From Hostilities) but he vacillated terribly and ultimately failed to be serious on this critical point.

8) This book *destroys* the Defense Intelligence Agency, which some say should be burned to the ground to allow a fresh start. The author is brutal in recounting the struggles of General Marks to get DIA to provide any useful information on the alleged 946 WMD sites in Iraq. DIA comes across as completely derelict bean counters with no clue how to support operators going in harms way, i.e. create actionable intelligence.

9) Despite WMD as the alleged basis for war, the military had no unit trained, equipped, or organized to find and neutralize WMD sites. A 400 person artillery unit was pressed into this fearful service.

10) General Jay Garner is the star of this story. My face lit up as I read of his accomplishments, insights, and good judgments. He and General Abizaid both understood that allowing the Iraqi Army to stay in being with some honor was the key to transitioning to peace, and it is clearly documented that Dick Cheney was the undoing of the peace. It was Dick Cheney that deprived Jay Garner of Tom Warrick from State, the man who has overseen and understood a year of planning on making the peace, and it was Dick Cheney that fired Garner and put Paul Bremer, idiot pro-consult in place. Garner clearly understood a month before the war–while there was still time to call it off–that the peace was un-winable absent major changes, but he could not get traction within the ideological fantasy land of the Vice Presidency.

11) Apart from State, one military officer, Colonel Steve Peterson, clearly foresaw the insurgency strategy, but his prescient warnings were dismissed by the larger group.

12) General Tommy Franks called Doug Feith “the dumbest bastard on the planet,” –Feith deprived Garner of critical information and promoted Chalabi as the man with all the answers.

13) The author covers the 2004 election night very ably, but at this point the book started to turn my stomach. The author appears oblivious to the fact that the Ohio election was stolen through the manipulation of 12 voting districts, loading good machines in the pro-Bush areas, putting too few machines in the pro-Kerry areas, and in some cases, documented by Rolling Stone, actually not counting Kerry votes at all on the tallies. Ohio has yet to pay, as does Florida, for its treasonous betrayal of the Republic.

Today I issued a press release pointing toward the Pakistan treaty creating the Islamic Emirate of Waziristan as a safehaven for the Taliban and Al Qaeda as the definitive end–loss of–the war on terror, which is a tactic, not an enemy. As Colin Gray says in “Modern Strategy,” time is the one strategic variable that cannot be bought nor replaced. As a moderate Republican I dare to suggest that resigning prior to the November elections, in favor of John McCain, Gary Hart, and a Coalition Cabinet, might be the one thing that keeps the moderate Republican incumbents, and the honest Democrats–those that respect the need for a balanced budget–in place to provide for continuity in Congress, which must *be* the first branch of government rather than slaves to the party line.

It's crunch time. This book is the last straw. The American people are now *very* angry.

2006/09/082009/12/04

Review: How Bush Rules–Chronicles of a Radical Regime

4 Star, Congress (Failure, Reform), Corruption, Executive (Partisan Failure, Reform), Impeachment & Treason

Opens with Summary, Good Series, Underestimates Cheney,

September 8, 2006

Sidney Blumenthal

By virtue of being an organized series of past short columns, most two pages to three pages in length, this book may be off-putting to the average reader, but for either insiders or those who care deeply about moral legitimate governance, this is a real page turner.

The author renders a valuable service in providing an original 23 page “tour of the horizon” that captures many but not all of the impeachable offenses of the Bush-Cheney team. In Florida, for example, his emphasis is on Bushophiles stopping the recount, not on the fact that Greg Pabst broke the story BEFORE the election that 35,000 people of color had been disenfranchised by Jeb Bush in a calculated plan to cheat the American public out of an honest election.

As someone who has read most but not all of the books covering this era (it merits comment that in its radical being, the Bush-Cheney Administration has inspired more books of the moment than any other previous President, as best I can tell), I found the collection of essays logical, reasoned, relevant, and depressing. This is a litany of high crimes and misdemeanors that demands the question: why hasn't this pair been impeached? The obvious answer is because they own Congress, which has abdicated its roles at the first (Article 1) branch of government, the less obvious answer is because the public has become both ignorant and inert, the worst nightmare of Thomas Jefferson and Justice Branstein combined.

A few highlights along the trail:

Intelligence wars, with Cheney first trying to intimidate the CIA, then ignoring it.

Cheney killing the policy process, ruling by dogma.

Rice negligent & incompetent, as well as disloyal to Scowcroft, subversive of Powell, and ultimately the “butterfly of the State Department.”

Senate Select Committee on Intelligence betraying the people's trust and its responsibility, the majority concealing and delaying accountability.

Bush leveraging religions, creating the first major violation of the Founding Fathers' insistence on a secular state with tolerance of all religions.

Government in crisis, Bush-Cheney at war with the professionals.

Iran, not US, winning in Iraq.

Bolton as a “neo-primitive” (for the cognoscenti, the author renders gifted turns of phrase at every turn).

Catholic Church as a neo-fascist extreme right element more in harmony with the Bush regime than any protestant might imagine.

The invisible shrinking president seeking to uphold a doctrine of presidential infallibility.

The summary at the beginning of the book is alone worth the price of the book, and takes this collection of insightful and well-sequenced essays from four to five stars.

My one thought in putting the book down was that the author may have been unduly kind to Cheney. If one reads the The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America's Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11 it is clear Cheney has mounted an internal coup d'etat and is NOT briefing Bush, is actively WITHHOLDING from Bush critical information, and appears to be deliberately REVERSING decisions by Bush made in Cabinet sessions and the over-turned in the dark. The full story on Cheney's machinations remains to be told.

EDIT of 10 Dec 07: We now know that Dick Cheney is a nakely amoral person and has committed 25 documents acts of commission or omission that in my judgement demand that he be impeached. See, in addition to One Percent Doctrine, Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency. My review there items 23 act, the other two are in One Percent Doctrine.

The book has an index, mostly of names.

2006/08/112009/12/04

Review: Articles of Impeachment Against George W. Bush

5 Star, Impeachment & Treason

Excellent but Incomplete–See Other Books Below,

August 11, 2006

Center for Constitutional Rights

This is a fine little effort, a very fast read, with four articles of impeachment:

1) Violation of privacy and law re the NSA eavesdropping

2) Initiation and continuation of the Iraq war on web of lies

3) Torture & rendition inclusive of US citizens and violation of habeas corpus, making law and interpreting law

4) Abrogation of power from Congress, exceeding the bounds of excutive authority as established by Constitution and laws in effect.

It is not, however, the whole story. At least two other books by constitutional lawyers must be read to appreciate the gravity and full range of impeachable offences that could be judged by Congress: the book “How Would a Patriot Act,” and the book, “The Case for Impeachment,” which is more substantive than this one. Here is the complete list from the latter book:

1. Stole Florida election in 2000.
2. Lied on Iraq to Congress, the Public, and the United Nations.
3. 9-11 Cover-Up and Obstruction of Justice.
4. Violated Rights of Citizens including Habeas Corpus.
5. NSA Program to Listen to Citizens without Warrant.
6. Violated International Treaties Including Geneva Convention.
7. Actively Encouraged, as a Policy, Use of Torture.
8. Gross Negligence on Hurricane Katrina.
9. Iraq Contract Corruption–Bremer “Lost” $8 billion in cash, sole source awards, and gross negligence in managing the peace.
10. Stole Ohio election in 2004.

Still, that is not the whole story. Congress, with the sole brilliant exception of the most extraordinary Senator Byrd (see my review of his book of speeches against the Bush violations, “Losing America: Confronting a Reckless and Arrogant Presidency”) failed all Americans. To understand the failure of Congress, see Senator/Congressman Tom Coburn's “Breach of Trust” and the book just out on “Broken Branch” in which the authors make clear that the extremist Republicans in Congress (not the moderate Republicans like Congressman Rob Simmons, an authentic patriot and man of honor) decided they were the President's “footsoldiers” rather than, as the Founding Fathers intended, the FIRST Branch of Government.

However, even that is not enough. To understand the full extent of the violations that have burned our seed corn, inflicted syphillis on our children, and cost us the moral regard of the rest of the planet, you need to read “The One Percent Doctrine” and “Speaking Freely” and can go on from there to “Downsizing Democracy: How American Sidelined Its Citizedns and Privatized Its Public.” And more. See my lists on evaluating Dick Cheney in relation to both impeachable offenses, and corporate corruption.

It was the Republicans with their grotesque law suite against President Clinton that demeaned Congress and surrended moral authority. This next election may throw out as many Democrats as it does Republicans (Democcrats are Republicans lite–just as corrupt, just less capable), but if we wish to avoid two more years of economic colonialism and unilateral militarism by chicken hawks like Cheney that never served under arms, then we may just have to bite the bullet.

The one thing missing from this book is the “Do It Yourself Impeachment” kit. It turns out that citizens can impeach the President and Vice President if Congress fails to do its dury. Now wouldn't that be something–restoration of the engaged Republic of the whole.

This is a fine book. My reviews of all of these books are the first investment I recommend, followed by any one of the above.

2006/08/092009/12/04

Review: Fiasco–The American Military Adventure in Iraq (Hardcover)

5 Star, Congress (Failure, Reform), Corruption, Empire, Sorrows, Hubris, Blowback, Impeachment & Treason, Intelligence (Government/Secret), Iraq, Misinformation & Propaganda, Politics, Power (Pathologies & Utilization), Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy

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Extraordinarily Good Review, with Sadness of Deja Vu and Silence of the Lambs,

August 9, 2006

Thomas E. Ricks

There are other vital books to read, not least of which is James Risens State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration and Jim Bamford's A Pretext for War: 9/11, Iraq, and the Abuse of America's Intelligence Agencies and Squandered Victory: The American Occupation and the Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraq as well as The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War Without End. There are lesser books as well, such as Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq. On balance, of all the books I have read, this is the best and easiest to read chronicle and teaching device.

Everyone preparing to vote in November for the gutless Congress that betrayed America and failed to maintain either the power of the purse or the power to declare war, should read this book.

And when future politicians who were military commanders that failed to speak up (“the silence of the lambs” as the author notes) ask for your vote, laugh in their face.

There are leadership heros in this book–General Zinni of the Marine Corps, General Shinseki, who told the truth to Congress and was fired for his trouble (as was General Clapper, who said that the national agencies could be cut free from defense). Garner and the Army generals were on the right track, until Garner was fired for doing the right thing (trying to accelerate the turnover of authority to the Iraqis and the exit of Americans).

There are also villains. Chalabi gets his due share but in my view the author underestimates Chalabi's influence on Cheney, and Chalabi's treasonous representation of Iranian interests.

Rumsfeld is documented over and over as one massive ego completely uncaring of inter-agency effectiveness or accomodating to reality.

Edit of 10 Sep 06: the author appeared on a Sunday talk show today, and pointed out that it was Paul Bremer who gave the Iraqi insurgency everything they needed: 1) leadership, with his order to ban Bathists from responsible positions; 2) guns and volunteers with his order to disband the Iraqi military and police; and 3) finances, providing Iran with exactly the right opportunity to further its interests. It can be said that Bremer has done more damange to America than Bin Laden–what an obituary that makes!

This is a superb chronicle of who shot John, when, and how. The headings for each section of text are brilliant. When I first got the book I flipped through it and read only the headings, and they were as compelling and concise of summary of our botched endeavor in Iraq as one could want.

If you buy and read only one book from among all those I have mentioned, this is the book to buy.