In this diarly, the author ties together a "method of operation" regarding Dick Cheney's approach to government and how that approach has worked out so far. In one sense, Great. In another, Horribly. The first sense in for Dick Cheney himself. The other sense is for everyone else.
This should be a fairly free-ranging post on the subject. It's interesting, sometimes, how a number of story thread can tie back together and create a whole new knot of previously unkown proportions.
The knot here starts with the conviction of I. Lewes "Scooter" Libby, former chief of staff for Vice President Cheney.
At an already difficult time for the Bush administration, the felony conviction of a former top aide to Vice President Cheney has cast a pall over the White House.
I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Mr. Cheney's onetime chief of staff, was convicted Tuesday on four of the five counts he faced involving perjury, obstruction of justice, and lying to the FBI during a federal investigation into the suspected leak of a covert CIA agent's identity.
Whether that CIA employee, Valerie Plame, was in fact a covert operative at the time her identity was publicly revealed in a 2003 column by Robert Novak remains a matter of dispute. Ms. Plame and her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, believe it was and are suing Libby, Cheney, and presidential aide Karl Rove in civil court.
What people need to remember about this trial is not that there is another felon in the White House [1], but what got this whole story thread started in the first place.
The Plame investigation sprang from a 16-word sentence in President Bush's 2003 State of the Union address, in which he stated that Iraq was attempting to purchase uranium from Africa. In July 2003, Ambassador Wilson wrote a column stating that he had found no evidence of such Iraqi attempts and accused the Bush administration of twisting intelligence to justify going to war in Iraq.
[full story]
As we look back (and sadly, forward) on the fiasco that is Iraq, it is important to remember what happened to people who dared question the Bush/Cheney line on WMD in Iraq. They got attacked. They got smeared. They got scared.
That is why this story is important [previous coverage here].
We move from that nearly complete thread, to the one that is just now gaining steam, the long-term care of the people who fought, and didn't die, in the war that was sold (through strong-arm tactics mentioned above).
The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has subpoenaed Maj. Gen. George Weightman, who was fired as head of Walter Reed Army Medical Center, after Army officials refused to allow him to testify before the committee Monday.
Committee Chairman Henry Waxman and subcommittee Chairman John Tierney asked Weightman to testify about an internal memo that showed privatization of services at Walter Reed could put "patient care services 'at risk of mission failure'."
But Army officials refused to allow Weightman to appear before the committee after he was relieved of command.
"The Army was unable to provide a satisfactory explanation for the decision to prevent General Weightman from testifying," committee members said in a statement today.
[full story]
The point here is trying to figure out "what went wrong". In the case of the selling of the Iraq war, we see that "what went wrong" was a largely docile media made that way through public intimidation and character assassinations.
In the case of the Walter Reed Hospital problem. What went wrong is "privatization" (working theory...no jurty verdicts yet).
The committee wants to learn more about a letter written in September by Garrison Commander Peter Garibaldi to Weightman.
The memorandum "describes how the Army’s decision to privatize support services at Walter Reed Army Medical Center was causing an exodus of ‘highly skilled and experienced personnel,’" the committee’s letter states. "According to multiple sources, the decision to privatize support services at Walter Reed led to a precipitous drop in support personnel at Walter Reed."
The letter said Walter Reed also awarded a five-year, $120-million contract to IAP Worldwide Services, which is run by Al Neffgen, a former senior Halliburton official.
They also found that more than 300 federal employees providing facilities management services at Walter Reed had drooped to fewer than 60 by Feb. 3, 2007, the day before IAP took over facilities management. IAP replaced the remaining 60 employees with only 50 private workers.
So we here again, the type of people that are making fortunes from "privatizing" government work and are also tied to Halliburton (learn from the master, guess).
So, yes, this does again go back to Cheney, and the conservative mantra he has championed for 30 years (and made millions of dollars from [2]) of "privatize everything (especially our schools)". Now we are seeing the fruits of those labors in our armed services ability to fight, the care they recieve afterwards, the concentation of media power (which allowed the smears mentioned above), the lack of ability to respond to domestic catastrophe, and basically an unpopular, un-scrupulous government. [note: some conservatives are catching on...others....not so much...Clinton?, wha?!? [4] ].
Now let's get to those daily bombs that make Laura Bush think we aren't winning as much as her husband tells her we are. [3]
Nine American soldiers died in explosions north of Baghdad, the U.S. military announced Tuesday after the deadliest single day for U.S. troops in Iraq in nearly a month.
Six soldiers died when a bomb exploded Monday near their vehicles during a combat operation in Salahuddin province, the military said. Three others were wounded in the blast.
Another three soldiers died the same day in a roadside bomb attack in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad.
[full story]
And of course...
March 6 (Bloomberg) -- Two suicide bombers blew themselves up in the central Iraqi city of Hilla, killing 90 Shiite Muslims and injuring 160, in an attack on a procession of pilgrims heading to a shrine in nearby Karbala.
The second bomb went off as people rushed to help those who had been targeted in the first blast, a tactic intended to cause a high casualty toll, state-run television cited police as saying. Central Hilla's only hospital was struggling to help the wounded, many of whom have life-threatening injuries.
At least 28 other pilgrims were killed elsewhere in Iraq today as thousands of Shiites defied threats from Sunni Muslim militants and set off on foot for Karbala, a holy city 100 kilometers (70 miles) south of Baghdad, for the religious observance of Arbaeen on March 9, state-run television said.
[full story]
The bombings, sadly, tie back into both previous points of this thread, that the war was a mistake sold by someone who would profit from it and viciously attacked any critics, and those soldiers have an even longer, harder road ahead of them if/when they make it home.
You know, I can't even get to the Russia stuff yet. I'll have to do another post about that one at a later date. Long story short: our idiotic national security strategy is giving them the excuses they need to start doing a bunch of dirty stuff again.
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NOTES/EXPLANATIONS/CLARIFICATIONS:
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[1] From the same link.
Libby's criminal conviction represents a rare moment in American history, the conviction of someone for actions taken during their time as a White House official. Over the years, top administration officials have been indicted, and most of them acquitted, but the last time a White House official was found guilty was during the Iran-contra scandal of the Reagan administration.
[2]
The Cheneys' best year, financially speaking, was 2000, when they earned $36,086,635 (that's eight figures, not including the cents), mostly from Cheney's Halliburton stock.
[full story] NOTE: This is before the war started. However, even Cheney's pre-war Halliburton wealth should be considered when looking at the long term pattern of action. Halliburton grew up to cover holes in the U.S. Armed forces created by, you guess it, privatization of the armed forces. i.e.
Halliburton Unit Awarded Logistics Services Contract to Support U.S. Forces in the Balkans
Dallas, Texas - Brown & Root Services (BRS), a business unit of Halliburton Company (NYSE: HAL), has been selected to continue its services as the premier logistics support provider to U.S. forces deployed in the Balkans region. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Transatlantic Programs Center announced today that it awarded the logistics support services contract, which becomes effective on May 28, 1999, to Brown & Root Services for a period of up to five years. Contract value is estimated up to $180 million per year, with a maximum value of $900 million if all four option periods are exercised. The one-year contract has four one-year options that can be awarded at the government's discretion.
[3] Full Quote Here
Tonight on Larry King Live, First Lady Laura Bush said she understands "how the American people feel" when they express frustration over Iraq, but insisted that "to leave now would be a serious mistake." She said of Iraqis, "This is their opportunity to seize the moment, to build a really good and stable country."
As AmericaBlog first noted, Bush added, "[M]any parts of Iraq are stable now. But, of course, what we see on television is the one bombing a day that discourages everybody."
[4] Malkin is such an idiot. Here's the Clinton joke part...from that post (which, BTW, was about the point that the privatization of Walter Reed is a good argument against a national healthcare system....because government run stuff sucks....yea...I know...it's tough to follow).
But to the extent that privatization of some services has had an adverse impact on care, here's an inconvenient truth: Outsourcing began under Clinton in 2000. He set the ball in motion.
Ummm, okay? Recall that 2000 was his last year, and also recall that Clinton did a lot of stuff many people didn't agree with. Two off the top of my head, the DMCA of '98 and the Telecom Act of '96. Both idiotic laws that we are still having to work through today....and both proposed by a Republican Congress, we should recall. Remember, U.S. Presidents don't write laws (well, at least before the 21st century.)