Karl Rove is Delusional

I guess he has to find some way to justify the last 30 years of his life.

Here's Rove's "Long View" which is quite short on reality. Grab the vomit bag.

So how might history view the 43rd president? I can hardly be considered an objective observer, but in this highly polarized period, who is?

You should have stopped right there. But, no...

However, I believe history will provide a more clear-eyed verdict on this president’s leadership than the anger of current critics would suggest.

President Bush will be viewed as a far-sighted leader who confronted the key test of the 21st century.

He will be judged as a man of moral clarity who put America on wartime footing in the dangerous struggle against radical Islamic terrorism.
[...]
President Bush will be seen as a compassionate leader who used America’s power for good.
[...]
History will see President Bush as a reformer who focused on modernizing important institutions.

He is concerned with fundamental change that will — among other goals — strengthen the ways our children are educated and health care is provided.

In education, “No Child Left Behind” introduced accountability into our public-education system by ensuring every child’s progress is measured.
[...]
He will be seen as an innovative conservative thinker with a positive, optimistic agenda for action.
[...]
The outcome in Iraq and Afghanistan will color how history views the president.

History’s concern is with final outcomes, not the missteps or advances of the moment. History will render a favorable verdict if the outcome in the Middle East is similar to what America saw after World War II.
[...]
History will see President Bush as right, and the opponents of his policy as mistaken — as George McGovern was in his time.
[...]
History demands much of America and its leaders and I am confident it will judge the 43rd president as a man more than worthy of the great office the American people twice entrusted to him.

Don't say I didn't warn you.
 

Friday Fun: Rats, Sinking Ship Edition

Newsweek:

Aug. 31, 2007 - That scampering sound you hear is the feet of senior White House officials running for the exits. The summer has left President Bush without three of his closest Texas aides: counselor Dan Bartlett, political guru Karl Rove and longtime lawyer Alberto Gonzales. Now Bush is losing one of the few outsiders who helped improve (a little) the atmosphere of his second term: press secretary Tony Snow.

"You can't pay me enough to do this damn job anymore!" Snow was heard saying.

Meanwhile: Heartbroken Bush Runs After Departing Rove's Car

"Why can't I go with him?" Bush tearfully asked advisers as the longtime Republican strategist's sedan disappeared over the horizon. "When is he coming back?"

White House staff were deeply moved by the scene, saying that despite their best efforts, no one was able to explain to the president that he would no longer be able to remain at his chief adviser's side. Onlookers were clearly choked up as a tearful Rove, trying to close the car door behind him, told Bush in a stern, commanding tone to back away.

"Go on…you hear me? Get out of here, I say!" Rove said. "I don't love you anymore, understand? Now get! Get!"

And: Va. Senator Warner Will Not Seek Sixth Term

Don't let the war hit you on the way out, Warner.

Finally, Larry 'I am not gay, I did not play, I will now pay' Craig is heading back to Brokeback Boise, Idaho to hang up his spurs.

Asked Friday at the White House if the senator should resign, President Bush said nothing and walked off stage.

Way to stand by your man there, dubya!

Craig, forever memorialized by Keith O:



The day isn't over yet. Who knows which rat might be next? Run Dick, run!
 

Rove Resigns!

Gone. Fini. Buh bye. Let all the doors hit you on the way out.

No doubt, he's off to join the military so he can fight in Iraq.

If I was a Christian, I'd thank the lord.

If I hadn't quit drinking 20+ years ago, I'd crack open a bottle of champagne.

If I had a hammer, I'd hammer in the morning...all over this land.

As it is, all I can offer is this:



And this:



Oh, and this, of course! Cheesecake for everyone!

Random News & Views Roundup

- So much for Obama's hawkish foreign policy:

ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistan accused Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama of "sheer ignorance" for threatening to launch US military strikes against Al-Qaeda on Pakistani soil.

- So the White House thumbed its nose at having Karl Rove testifying before the senate committee investigating the US attorneys scandal and his aide, Scott Jennings, showed up and refused to answer "at least a dozen questions". Like getting blood from a stone.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, asked Jennings, "Where is Karl Rove? Why is he hiding? Why does he throw a young staffer like you into the line of fire while he hides behind the White House curtains?"

Because he's an arrogant asshole, Dick. Next question?

- I'd sure like to know where the Bush administration finds these clueless people who apparently all live on Fantasy Island:

WASHINGTON, Aug. 2 — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Thursday that he was discouraged by the resignation of the Sunnis from Iraq’s cabinet and that the Bush administration might have misjudged the difficulty of achieving reconciliation between Iraq’s sectarian factions.

In one of his bluntest assessments of the progress of the administration’s Iraq strategy, Mr. Gates said, “I think the developments on the political side are somewhat discouraging at the national level.” He said that despite the Sunni withdrawal, “my hope is that it can all be patched back together.”

I guess democracy's a quilt now.

He acknowledged that when the Bush administration decided to send the additional troops, “We probably all underestimated the depth of the mistrust and how difficult it would be for these guys to come together on legislation, which, let’s face it, is not some kind of secondary issue.”

"might have"? "probably"?? Sheesh.

- Proof that Republicans are partisan idiots:

WASHINGTON -- Congress struggled Thursday over giving the government more power to eavesdrop on suspected terrorists, bogged down by concerns about the man who would oversee the plan _ Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
[...]
Gonzales "is clearly one of the concerns that has been expressed by the Democratic leaders," House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio told reporters.

"But at the end of the day, there has to be a way for our intelligence and counterintelligence agencies to collect data from known terrorists," Boehner said. "And we shouldn't let personalities get in the way of protecting the American people."

One of the most corrupt and torture-loving AGs ever and Boehner thinks it's a personality issue? That's exactly why America is so bloody screwed up.
 

Random News & Views Roundup

- If you're Alberto Gonzales, you know you're in trouble when the FBI director contradicts your sworn testimony.

- Pat Tillman's mother has long thought he may have been murdered. New details published by the AP may help boost that claim. After all, you really have to wonder why the White House would use executive privilege to block the release of the relevant documents it has in this case which has been repeatedly spun by Bush's operatives.

- Karl Rove subpoenaed. I'd rather see the headline, "Karl Rove Convicted", but that will do for now.

- Remember Weibo Ludwig? He's ba-ack. Most retirees take up golfing or gardening. I'm just sayin'.

- Is that bottled water you're buying just expensive tap water? In some cases, yes.

- Reefer madness. It's real. But the movie was still hilariously bad.

- John Pilger: How Truth Slips Down the Memory Hole.

- Nucking Futs, or Crazy Like a Fox? (Hey, it's not my headline, but it is apropos especially when they're hailing losers like DeLay, Lieberman and Santorum). Much more on Hagee here.

- And, speaking of Israel, a US house subcommittee voted in favour of handing over $150 million dollars for its ballistic defence system. Armageddon, here we come.

- Another neocon wet dream: Bush Speechwriter Calls for Attack on Syria. I imagine they'd just choose to nuke the entire middle east if it weren't for Israel being there (and if they could find some way to recover the oil after the bombings.)

- Iraqi oil patch workers continue to protest the proposed US-driven Iraq oil law. Meanwhile, back at the al-Maliki ranch, Sunni lawmakers have walked out and:

...immediately suspended all participation with the government and gave al-Maliki one week to meet package of demands or it would completely pull out of the government.

Among the bloc's demands were a government pardon for all security detainees not charged with crimes, disbanding all Shi'ite militias, an opportunity for the front to have real participation in the decision-making process and the strict adherence to the International Declaration of Human Rights.
[...]
...more than one-quarter of the places in al-Maliki's 38-member cabinet are vacant due to protests.

And freedom still isn't on the march.
 

Plame's Lawsuit Dismissed

According to a federal judge, Bush administration officials had the right to leak her name:

U.S. District Judge John D. Bates dismissed the case on jurisdictional grounds and said he would not express an opinion on the constitutional arguments. Bates dismissed the case against all defendants: Cheney, White House political adviser Karl Rove, former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby and former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.

Plame's attorneys had said the lawsuit would be an uphill battle. Public officials are normally immune from such lawsuits filed in connection with their jobs.

While Bates did not address the constitutional questions, he seemed to side with administration officials who said they were acting within their job duties. Plame had argued that what they did was illegal and outside the scope of their government jobs.

"The alleged means by which defendants chose to rebut Mr. Wilson's comments and attack his credibility may have been highly unsavory, " Bates wrote. "But there can be no serious dispute that the act of rebutting public criticism, such as that levied by Mr. Wilson against the Bush administration's handling of prewar foreign intelligence, by speaking with members of the press is within the scope of defendants' duties as high-level Executive Branch officials."

"Unsavory" isn't the word for it.

No word yet on whether Wilson and Plame will appeal this decision.

Update: Melanie Sloan, lawyer for Plame and Wilson, stated on Hardball that she intends to appeal.

Update: Novak Justifies Outing Plame and Sources

He also says in his book that if given the chance, he’d print her name again. “I broke no law and endangered no intelligence operation,” Novak writes. This morning, he added he felt “disappointed in the journalism profession” for its reaction to his printing Plame Wilson’s name. “I thought we stuck together in things like this. I guess that wasn’t the case.”

The Question Gonzales Won't Answer

Conyers (D-MI) to the smirking asshole from hell, Alberto Gonzales: who compiled the list of attorneys to be fired?

Watch Gonzales spin and guess who he's covering for:



Robert Wexler (D-FL) blows a gasket:

Quote du Jour: Rove - The Iraq War is bin Laden's Fault

Yes, really.

Karl Rove pontificates lies:

In a question-and-answer period after his speech, Rove was asked whose idea it was to start a pre-emptive war in Iraq.

``I think it was Osama bin Laden's,'' Rove replied.

Video: Leahy on the "lost" WH e-mails

Bonus: TPMmuckraker has a portion of a letter sent by the tireless Henry Waxman of the House Oversight committee to the so-called justice department in which he states:

According to Mr. Kelner, the RNC had a policy, which the RNC called a "document retention" policy, that purged all e-mails from RNC e-mail accounts and the RNC server that were more than 30 days old. Mr. Kelner said that as a result of unspecified legal inquiries, a "hold" was placed on this e-mail destruction policy for the accounts of White House officials in August 2004.
[...]
According to Mr. Kelner, although the hold started in August 2004, the RNC does not have any e-mails prior to 2005 for Mr. Rove. Mr. Kelner did not give any explanation for the e-mails missing from Mr. Rove's account, but he did acknowledge that one possible explanation is that Mr. Rove personally deleted his e-mails from the RNC server.

Mr. Kelner also explained that starting in 2005, the RNC began to treat Mr. Rove's emails in a special fashion. At some point in 2005, the RNC commenced an automatic archive policy for Mr. Rove, but not for any other White House officials. According to Mr. Kelner, this archive policy removed Mr. Rove's ability to personally delete his e-mails from the RNC server. Mr. Kelner did not provide many details about why this special policy was adopted for Mr. Rove. But he did indicate that one factor was the presence of investigative or discovery requests or other legal concerns. It was unclear from Mr. Kelner's briefing whether the special archiving policy for Mr. Rove was consistently in effect after 2005.

Dan Froomkin has more:

In an afternoon conference call with reporters, White House spokesman Scott Stanzel spread the blame all around. "White House policy did not give clear enough guidance," he said. "The oversight of that wasn't aggressive enough." And individual White House staffers "did not do a good enough job of following existing preservation policy -- or seeking guidance."

Said Stanzel: "I guess the bottom line is that our policy at the White House was not clear enough for employees."

But when I asked Stanzel to read out loud the White House e-mail policy, it seemed clear enough to me: "Federal law requires the preservation of electronic communications sent or received by White House staff," says the handbook that all staffers are given and expected to read and comply with.

"As a result, personnel working on behalf of the EOP [Executive Office of the President] are expected to only use government-provided e-mail services for all official communication."

The handbook further explains: "The official EOP e-mail system is designed to automatically comply with records management requirements."

Well, that sounds simple enough, doesn't it?

It's obvious the WH is drowning over this one:

Stanzel refused to publicly release the relevant portions of the White House staff manual and denied my request to make public the transcript of the call, which lasted more than an hour but which -- due to Stanzel's refusal or inability to provide straight answers on many issues -- raised more questions than it answered...

Maybe freedom from the Bush administration's lies really is on the march. Keep pushing, Waxman.

Oh, and here's another bonus:

So is anyone in trouble? Apparently not. Stanzel was careful to apportion blame widely and generically. "This issue is not the fault of one individual," he said. He refused even to acknowledge that it is the White House counsel's office that is responsible for the establishment and oversight of internal rules of conduct. The White House counsel during Bush's entire first term, of course, was Alberto Gonzales, now the embattled attorney general.

Can you feel that proverbial noose tightening around your neck there, Al? Starting to feel a bit tortured? That's nothing compared to what you've counseled this administration to do to "detainees" and so-called "terrorism suspects". Karma's a bitch, isn't it?
 

Random News & Views Roundup

- Karl "MC" Rove raps (video). I throw up a bit in my mouth.

- As I wrote about here Bush cited Iraqi bloggers from Iraq the Model in his speech to the Cattlemen's Association on Wednesday to prove there's "success" happening but, as E&P's Greg Mitchell points out:

(March 28, 2007) -- This is how far he, and his argument for continuing the slaughter in Iraq, have fallen: President Bush today was reduced to quoting two anonymous bloggers from Baghdad.

He cited them as evidence that his surge/escalation is working. One problem: their posts were written weeks ago, and re-published in the Wall Street Journal on March 7.

So the bloggers weren't even talking about current conditions in Baghdad. That left it to Rajiv Chandrasekaran, former Baghdad bureau chief of The Washington Post -- and author of the heralded 2006 book "Imperial Life in the Emerald City" -- who appeared on MSNBC's "Countdown" tonight to debunk this idea of a newly-safe Baghdad. "I talk to Iraqis all the time," he said.

He revealed that there had been steady insurgent mortar shots falling in the supposedly safe "Green Zone" all week, at least two Americans had died there in recent days, and U.S. Embassy staff had been instructed, in a switch, to wear their protective armor and helmets outside at all times. He also disclosed that the embassy's pool, scene of much partying in the recent past, has now been declared off-limits. All of this and more appears in a Post "Green Zone" article on Thursday.

Another day, another Bush screw up...but they're winning!, right?

- By the way, John McCain is on his way to Iraq where I'm sure he'll be able to enjoy that leisurely stroll through the streets of Baghdad that he's been touting all week. Send us a postcard, John. Well, that is, as long as you're not bothered by things like this while you're out there looking for a souvenir shop:

In Baghdad, 13 dumped bodies were recovered. A car bomb exploded at a major intersection in Bayaa, killing three people and injuring ten others.

- If you believe this headline, I have some really nice swampland to sell you: U.S. says not escalating tension with Iran. Tomorrow's headline: US Says the Sky is Green.

- The power of attempted suppression:

News that Channel 4 is to broadcast a controversial film called Mark of Cain, written by Tony Marchant, about British soldiers torturing and humiliating Iraqi prisoners in Basra in 2003, comes hard on the heels of a controversial book by the American sociologist Bob Lilly at long last finding a British publisher - Palgrave Macmillan.

Lilly's book, Taken by Force, was first published in France in 2003, and then in Italy in 2004, but initially failed to find either an American or British publisher. As one American publisher explained to Lilly, professor of sociology at Northern Kentucky University - "I wouldn't touch that book with a 10-foot long pole", given that the subject matter was concerned with the estimated 14,000 rapes committed by American soldiers in England, France and Germany between 1942 and 1945.

In short, at a time when "French fries" and "French toast" were being renamed "Freedom fries" and "Freedom toast" because, unlike us, the French refused to join the Bush administration's war in Iraq, the American public did not want to be told that their fathers, uncles and brothers who had fought in the second world war - that "Band of Brothers" as the historian Stephen Ambrose christened them, and whose status as the "greatest generation" had been cemented by Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan - had, in fact, been involved in some of the worst crimes on mainland Europe, including black-market trading, armed robbery, looting, rape and murder.

Couldn't have that published while America was at war, after all, now could we? Truth is bad for morale.

- Saudi King Abdullah:

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, March 28 — King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia told Arab leaders on Wednesday that the American occupation of Iraq was illegal and warned that unless Arab governments settled their differences, foreign powers like the United States would continue to dictate the region’s politics.

When Bushco is even losing the Saudis, you know there are big problems...

Turki al-Rasheed, who runs an organization promoting democracy in Saudi Arabia, said the king was “saying we may be moving on the same track, but our ends are different.”

“Bush wants to make it look like he is solving the problem,” Mr. Rasheed said. “The king wants to actually solve the problems.”

Well, it would be nice if somebody would actually solve "the problem". I don't really care who it is.

- Kyle Sampson is set to testify about AttorneyGate (or whatever the kids are calling it) on Thursday. You can catch it on CSPAN online.
 

Breaking: Rove's Ties to the US Attorney Firings

Karl Rove emerged from his dungeon today to wave off the firing of 8 US attorneys as being no big deal - accusing the congress of playing politics.

Well, not so fast there, Karl.

ABC News reports in a breaking, exclusive story:

March 15, 2007 — New unreleased e-mails from top administration officials show that the idea of firing all 93 U.S. attorneys was raised by White House adviser Karl Rove in early January 2005, indicating Rove was more involved in the plan than the White House previously acknowledged.

The e-mails also show that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales discussed the idea of firing the attorneys en masse weeks before he was confirmed as attorney general.

The e-mails directly contradict White House assertions that the notion originated with recently departed White House counsel Harriet Miers, and was her idea alone.

Two independent sources in a position to know have described the contents of the e-mail exchange, which could be released as early as Friday. They put Rove at the epicenter of the imbroglio and raise questions about Gonzales' explanations of the matter.

The e-mail exchange is dated early January 2005, more than a month before the White House acknowledged it was considering firing all the U.S. attorneys. On its face, the plan is not improper, inappropriate or even unusual: The president has the right to fire U.S. attorneys at any time, and presidents have done so when they took office.

What has made the issue a political firestorm is the White House's insistence that the idea came from Miers and was swiftly rejected.

White House press secretary Tony Snow told reporters Tuesday that Miers had suggested firing all 93, and that it was "her idea only." Snow said Miers' idea was quickly rejected by the Department of Justice...

Good . Maybe we can get a twofer here: get rid of Gonzales and Rove in one fell swoop. That would be sweet justice.

Scooter Libby = fall guy
Harriet Miers = fall gal
Kyle Sampson = fall guy

Was it worth it, you pathetic Bush bootlickers?

Related: All Roads Lead to Rove
Internal Affairs; Aborted DOJ Probe Probably Would Have Targeted Gonzales

Think Progress has more.
 

Rove's Involvement in the US Attorney Firings

With everything the Bush administration has gotten away with to this point, I have to wonder if the scandal of the firings of some US attorneys might finally be the one thing to bring some of them down.

Here's the latest:

Rove was asked to fire U.S. attorney
By Margaret Talev and Marisa Taylor
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - Presidential advisor Karl Rove and at least one other member of the White House political team were urged by the New Mexico Republican party chairman to fire the state's U.S. attorney because of dissatisfaction in part with his failure to indict Democrats in a voter fraud investigation in the battleground election state.

In an interview Saturday with McClatchy Newspapers, Allen Weh, the party chairman, said he complained in 2005 about then-U.S. Attorney David Iglesias to a White House liaison who worked for Rove and asked that he be removed. Weh said he followed up with Rove personally in late 2006 during a visit to the White House.

"Is anything ever going to happen to that guy?" Weh said he asked Rove at a White House holiday event that month.

"He's gone," Rove said, according to Weh.

"I probably said something close to 'Hallelujah,'" said Weh.

Weh's account calls into question the Justice Department's stance that the recent decision to fire Iglesias and seven U.S. attorneys in other states was a personnel matter - made without White House intervention. Justice Department officials have said the White House's involvement was limited to approving a list of the U.S. attorneys after the Justice Department made the decision to fire them.

Abu Gonzales called this an "overblown personnel matter" last week in an editorial in USA Today. Nothing to see here folks. Move along now. But, when your own Republicans are mad at you Gonzales, you'd better start paying attention. You don't get to wave this one off.

As for Rove, he's just playing dirty backroom politics as usual. One of these days that will catch up to him. Let's hope it's sooner rather than later.

Here's the crux of this story:

The firings, most of which happened Dec. 7, became a flashpoint for Democrats in part because they were accompanied by a little-noticed change in federal law in 2006 that allowed Gonzales to appoint interim federal prosecutors to indefinite terms. Under the previous system, the local federal district court would appoint a temporary replacement after 120 days until a permanent candidate was named and confirmed by the Senate.

Democrats and some Republicans said they were concerned the Justice Department was attempting to use the new provision to appoint political cronies without Senate oversight and that the firings were a means to that end. Gonzales and other Justice officials have argued that the old replacement system was inefficient and unconstitutional.

Democrats have attempted to attach to several pieces of legislation language to remove the provision, but they have been blocked repeatedly by Kyl. Senate aides cautioned that Gonzales's assertion that the administration will stand down did not guarantee passage, as Senate Republicans could still block the measure.

But after their meeting, Leahy said Gonzales assured him Bush will sign the bill if it reaches his desk. "My understanding is the president would," Leahy said.

The Bush administration has grasped for every possible ounce of power it could while it thought no one was paying attention. And frankly, some of the Dems weren't - obviously. Who reads all of those silly little bills anyway?

They have to spend so much time trying to play catch up with everything that's gone wrong that they'll be in hearings constantly from now until the next election - if not beyond that time. Meanwhile, who knows what else Bushco will try to slip past them? (War: Iran) The Dems need to start playing offense instead of always being stuck in defensive mode. They need to get on top of things quickly - now - before they're left behind again. Surely, they can walk and chew gum at the same time, can't they?

Bonus update: The NYT's editorial board has had enough of Gonzales:

On Thursday, Senator Arlen Specter, the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, hinted very obliquely that perhaps Mr. Gonzales’s time was up. We’re not going to be oblique. Mr. Bush should dismiss Mr. Gonzales and finally appoint an attorney general who will use the job to enforce the law and defend the Constitution.

Amen and read the whole thing.
 

Random News & Views Roundup

Busy day here but here are a few tidbits that caught my eye.

- Bush has approved 4,400 more troops for the Iraq war because he and whoever has been advising him (coughcoughCheneycoughKissingercough) totally misunderestimated what might be needed for their Grand Surge Plan™.

U.S. military commanders in Iraq have said in recent days that the number of additional U.S. troops needed to carry out Bush's security plan for Iraq could approach 30,000, taking into account units needed to support the 21,500 extra combat troops. The United States now has some 140,000 troops in the country.

Memories of cakewalk and being greeted as liberators and flowers and candy stroll through my brain.

- So much for those talks held with Iraq's neighbours and the US on Saturday. Meanwhile, Saturday's death toll includes 40 Iraqis Killed, 104 Wounded and American soldiers are being accused of shooting at a family in Sadr city, killing the father and 2 young daughters, and...

In Diyala, American forces on Friday shot and killed three Iraqi Army soldiers in a military pickup truck after they failed to obey an American order to stop, Iraqi military officials said.

I'm sure there's Good News somewhere in Iraq today, but you'll have to look for it yourself. Try the Department of Defence site.

- In Latin America, Hugo Chavez called Bush a "political cadaver" (ouch - that's a bit more harsh than "lame duck") while Bush was trying to convince people there that he "care[s] about the human condition". Where, exactly? I'm not sure.

- Oh yes, I'd be remiss if I didn't remind people that bin Laden is celebrating his 50th birthday in his undisclosed location today. bin who, you ask?

- Dan Froomkin asks, Where's Karl Rove?. Well, at the very least we know he's not at bin Laden's birthday party.

Michael Abramowitz writes in The Washington Post: "While he has kept a low profile in Washington since the midterm election losses took some of the edge off his reputation as a political genius,

Poor Karl.

"He [Rove] said that the biggest Bush legacy will be what he terms the 'Bush doctrine.' . . .

Along with all of the blood and carnage that goes with it.

- Conrad Black, what a clown. And a tip of the hat to Canadian Cynic for finding this amusing story about a defence fund hoax site that the Lord With the Enormous Ego thought was real!

- Good post by Mike over at Rational Reasons about the overuse of the anti-semitism charge and how that phenomenon is destructive when it comes to fighting real anti-semitism.

- Read Michael Scheuer's A catalogue of errors in Afghanistan.

The future for the West in Afghanistan is bleak, and it is made more discouraging by the fact that much of the West's defeat will be self-inflicted because it did not adequately study the lessons of history.

Exactly.

- Check out this interview with Noam Chomsky about "War, Neoliberalism and Empire in the 21st Century. Interesting stuff.