The spin doctor from Molly Ivins
Then there’s the case of Richard Clarke, the top adviser on counter-terrorism to both Clinton and Bush. In his stunning interview on “60 Minutes,” I thought the most chilling moment was what he said took place immediately after 9-11: “Well, Rumsfeld was saying that we needed to bomb Iraq. And we all said, ‘But no, no. Al Qaeda is in Afghanistan.’ And Rumsfeld said, ‘There aren’t any good targets in Afghanistan, and there are lots of good targets in Iraq.’ I said, ‘Well, there are lots of good targets in lots of places, but Iraq had nothing to do with it.
Clarke said it was as though after Pearl Harbor, Franklin Roosevelt had wanted to attack Mexico.
Another Clarke insight, “I blame the entire Bush leadership for continuing to work on Cold War issues when they (came) back in power in 2001. It was as though they were preserved in amber from when they left office eight years before.”
