July 19, 2007


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY


LESSONS FROM BARBARA TUCHMAN

The late Barbara Tuchman was a preeminent historian. JFK greatly respected her book The Guns of August that detailed the misadventures and failed policies that got the world into World War I. She also wrote a book talking about the mistakes that got us into Vietnam. What she wrote would apply just as well to the folly in Iraq. This column by Ray McGovern is at www.consortiumnews.com:

In her book, Tuchman emphasized that courtiers can reinforce the ruler’s certitude, as was the case with Philip, and is the now the case with George.

And if the courtiers are really good at it, they are awarded the Medal of Freedom—as was the case with former CIA director George Tenet, former Army General Tommy Franks, and former U.S. proconsul in Baghdad Paul Bremer—each of whom richly deserved a Heck of a job, Brownie-type salute.

As Tuchman pointed out: “Once a policy has been adopted and implemented, all subsequent activity becomes an effort to justify it...Adjustment is painful. For the ruler it is easier, once he has entered the policy box, to stay inside. For the lesser official it is better...not to make waves, not to press evidence that the chief will find painful to accept. Psychologists call the process of screening out discordant information ‘cognitive dissonance,’ an academic disguise for ‘Don’t confuse me with the facts.’”

Bush’s genius is that he knows this instinctively—without having to take Tuchman’s book to read in Crawford. And, by all signs, he likes it that way. That is why he has assembled a truly amazing array of sycophants around him, whose only pedigree is loyalty to George W. Bush.