I think Bush himself may well have believed that Chalabi was a friend of the United States and that his information was worth the money that we paid him for it. However, I do not think for a minute that those who were really involved in intelligence oversight and strategic foreign policy determinations were ever so myopic. In fact, those who have had the luxury of planning the direction of the nation for the past 12 years and of implementing that direction over the past four years have had a deliberate far-sightedness that rivals that of a novel writer over her storyline.
I want to preface the rest of this post by saying that in no way does this diary talk about any conspiracy surrounding 9/11. One need not be so dramatic. Good stories are always more subtle.
"And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited."They knew that they were entering into a military action that would not be sanctioned by any other nation nor by the citizens of their own. So they long ago prepared to employ the seductive literary tactic of betrayal. If there is one thing that this administration is good at, it is betrayal. In this regard, George Tenet and Ahmad Chalabi are playing a similar role. But what is important is that it is a role of distraction.
It seems like the latest opiate of the masses can be found in political editorials that serve as outlets to the latest offerings of the Bush administration's pre-ordained lot throwing. That we should be pawns in this narrative is frustrating to say the least, but is only the consequence of any power centralization. What is not so easily explained is our ability to sit idly by and allow the shoes of fallen strongmen to be filled by more ambitious would-be co-authors of "The Powers that Be".
Porter Goss and Iyad Allawi are sewn of the same cloth in this regard. Both are long-time insiders who have been at the fringes of real power just long enough to have proven their loyaly, yet not long enough to be useful as strawmen just yet.
If anyone has any doubt that the plight of the average American is not one of the chapters in this work of histerical fiction, they need only think about all of the voices of common sense and names for common sentiment that are missing from the short lists of potential presidential appointees.
It is interesting to remember, also, that the goat to which the sins were confessed was banished to the desert -- this was the escape goat. It is the one that remained behind that was sacrificed. I would be wary of volunteering if I were someone on that list.
I feel sorry for the popularity addicts and monomaniacs that pass for politicians as of late. They are mostly too blinded by publicity to see the reality of their fates.