I attended a fundraiser for Darcy Burner this afternoon at the home of Jeri and Greg Rice. Jim McDermott (WA-07) and his wife Theresa were there along with Trudi Inslee (Jay Inslee's wife (WA-01)). Darcy was there, of course, but headlining the event was
Joe Wilson. What a patriot!
Wilson talked about the Valerie Plame affair, of course. He emphasized how outrageous these guys are (Cheney and Rove, especially), that they would jeopardize national security by outing one of their covert agents in order to pay him back for questioning one of their rationales for the Iraq war.
But he also talked a lot about the Middle East. More below the fold.
Wilson was serving as a high-level diplomat in Iraq when Saddam invaded Kuwait. He was a player afterwards in building the coalition. He has spent a lot of time abroad and understands a lot more about the Middle East than these armchair neocons "in their wood paneled offices in Georgetown."
He gave a lot of interesting anecdotes. Somewhat recently he debated Bill Kristol (right wing pundit) and he asked Kristol if he had ever been to the Middle East. Kristol said it was an asset that he had never been there. It was clear that Wilson has a particular disdain for the neocons, because they want to turn the United States into an empire and are so blinded by ideology that they cannot be bothered with facts. He jokes that he carries wooden stakes around with him so if he meets a neocon, he can drive a stake through his heart.
Wilson talked about the times he had met Saddam. He said Saddam had a particular way of standing when you were meeting him that made it appear on camera that you were bowing to him when you shook his hand. Saddam would stand closer than normal and put his hand down very low. So the tendency is to look down to find his hand and the camera would catch you with your head down, "bowing" to Saddam. So the last time Wilson saw Saddam, he was determined not to bow down. This was after Saddam had invaded Kuwait and the Americans were leaving Baghdad. When Saddam put his hand down low as he did, Wilson stared directly at him and groped, successfully, for his hand to shake. A while later, back in the States Wilson was talking with Tom Foley (our illustrious former Washington congressman from WA-05 and House Speaker until 1994), with whom he had worked in Congress, and Foley said (paraphrasing from my memory), "You mean we had to send all of those troops over there when you could have had Saddam by the balls?"
Anyway, Wilson spoke for a while at how this brand of Republicans is threatening the Constitution. And how important it is to take control of Congress back so we can hold them accountable. That's what this is about: accountability. Ain't it the truth.
Later, during Q&A, Wilson talked at length about the Middle East. He does not think partition (which Peter Galbraith and Al Franken have been talking about) will work, because he thinks Baghdad is too much the center of the country. Also, he thinks the Kurds will be worse off because they will be more susceptible to becoming pawns to the other big players in the Middle East. But he thinks we need to stop killing - stop putting our troops on missions to kill people. (Example: our troops have been sent against Sunni militias at the behest on the Shiite led govt.) We need to bring all of the players to the table and get them to shout at each other instead of shooting at each other. And the big players need to be there, too (which I think means Iran, Saudis, etc.), because the big powers are the patrons of the different interest groups and they need to give those groups the backing to allow them to feel comfortable enough to make concessions. And, he said, it comes back to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The U.S. needs to take a much more active role and continue to slowly move that process forward. He really feels that the Bush administration has screwed up the chances for peace in that conflict. He said when Arafat and Barak were at Camp David in 2000, they were close but didn't get the Saudis or some other players to help Arafat feel like he could go through with the process. That was under Clinton, of course, and did not succeed at that point. But Wilson feels that when Bush became president, they let the initiative wither with inattention.
Anyway, it was a very interesting event and I felt honored to be able to shake hands with such a patriot, someone who understands what democracy is and celebrates the process of compromise.
Now let's hope we can turn the corner and limit the power of the neocons now and later take the power back from them.