When the prime Neocon journal publically slams the work of one of its number as stupid and to be abandoned, you know there's some heat going down. William Kristol and Robert Kagan write:
A deviously smart American administration would have quietly distributed contracts for rebuilding Iraq as it saw fit, without any announced policy of discrimination. At the end of the day, it would be clear that opponents of American policy didn't fare too well in the bidding process. Message delivered, but with a certain subtlety.A more clever American administration would have thrown a contract or two to a couple of those opponents, to a German firm, for instance, as a way of wooing at least the business sectors in a country where many businessmen do want to strengthen ties with the United States.
A truly wise American administration would have opened the bidding to all comers, regardless of their opposition to the war -- as a way of buying those countries into the Iraq effort, building a little goodwill for the future, and demonstrating to the world a little magnanimity.
But instead of being smart, clever, or magnanimous, the Bush Administration has done a dumb thing.
That ban was the work of Paul Wolfowitz. And I am not going to join the ranks of those calling for him to go. He is secondary to having Bush go and the longer he is around the worse he can make things. Keep Wolfie free!!;-)
Posted by Donald Douglas at December 12, 2003 05:54 PM | TrackBack