This by Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter
MSNBC – Your Gut Only Gets You So Far
Why is he so afraid of engaging in a real argument? Because answering more than softball questions requires boning up, and this president doesn’t believe in acquiring information that contradicts his assumptions. He believes in making decisions by instinct, then sticking with them without second-guessing. It’s what makes him a good politician and a poor chief executive at the same time.
The propensity the Bush adminjistration shows to coverup leads to catastrpohic failures (and “quagmires”). Many also suggest — myslef included, that their determiniation that they have it all right and figured out going in has led to massivvely irreponsible neglect of Homeland Security by refusing to heed the warnings of several from THEIR OWN administration. This points out to me that the administration is really much smaller than they want it to appear, a nd that they “show” this staff as a means of legitimizing their pre-determined strategies. The way they rammed through (and we see how falsely based this all was) the rationale to attack Iraq, and how they managed to ignore so many somewwhat obvious warnings and hints that something was afoot, all the way to attempting to cover up the involvement of Saudi Arabia with key players in the 9/11 attacks (including the hijackers themselves).
As I wrap up my reading of Bob Graham’s Intelligence Matters, and having formerly read Richard Clarke’s Against All Enemies, among several other investigative reports, including the 9/11 Commission, the burden of explanation and culpability lies squarely on this administration, whose lack of attention, and even “RESISTANCE” to taking any action whatsoever on warnings sounded borders on the criminal (if it doesn’t completely cross the line. Graham outlines how he thinks these failures are much more serious than any singular private moral failings or even lies to protect one’s self are nowhere near as serious as the consequences of the failures and stonewallings and stubborness of the Bush administration from the moment they took office.