Some people have earned the right not to be listened to, as James Fallows suggests. Namely, the architects of President Bush's illegitimate and disastrous Iraq War.
Unfortunately, such individuals are not just being granted national airtime to talk about Iraq, credentialed by those mainstream media elites who love to hear from politicians who once had the reins of power.
No, some of them will also be teaching the five-day course pictured below at the Hertog Foundation's Advanced Institute, credentialed by their war crimes and abject failures.
This is not satire:
"The Hertog Advanced Institutes are for individuals who seek to influence the intellectual, civic, and political life of the United States."
The Hertog Foundation is offering Wolfowitz and Libby as teachers for "those who seek to influence the intellectual, civic, and political life of the United States." And it is doing so with a straight face, despite the horrific and devastating effects of those decisions Wolfowitz and Libby helped to make.
Which is why Fallows writes, with regard to the likes of Wolfowitz and Libby:
We now live with (and many, many people have died because of) the consequences of their gross misjudgments a dozen years ago. In the circumstances, they might have the decency to shut the hell up on this particular topic for a while. They helped create the disaster Iraqis and others are now dealing with. They have earned the right not to be listened to.
Yes, please. Just shut the hell up already.
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David Harris-Gershon is author of the memoir What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife?, recently published by Oneworld Publications.
