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Neocons no closer to getting it

Saul Landau is the author of the book "A Bush & Botox World". In writing a piece for counterpunch he puts the proposition:

"George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and his staff of neo con hard liners, and assorted handwringers could not have predicted the horror show that erupted in Iraq. The war makers were ignorant. Most remain that way--and proudly."

Landau goes on to say:

"The war makers, brilliant intellectuals like Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle, knew nothing of Iraqi reality. Nor did they evince interest in learning. Their neo con formula holds that as the strongest military power the United States can impose democracy by force to countries ruled by brutal dictators. They fashioned the "axis of evil," spun the "rogue states" phrase for the media as ways to disparage disobedient third world governments. Academics invented "failed states." Hey, call 'em anything but late for dinner.

Why should Wolfowitz, Perle, Douglas Feith and Scooter Libby bother studying the country they wanted the U.S. to invade? In 2002, their bosses held prayer meetings for war and cheer-led intellectuals and pundits, most of whom had never fought so much as a schoolyard brawl.

Wolfowitz shrugged off the cost factor as well, since he wouldn't have to pay. "We're dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon." (Testimony before House Committee on Appropriations, 3/27/03)"

Read this piece, in full, for a succinct analysis of the debacle which has become the Iraq War and its devastating aftermath. Landau's use of statistics only serve to make his propositions even more compelling.

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