Maureen Dowd, Madness as Method: Dick Cheney's craziness IS U.S. foreign policy

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: Madness as Method
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: October 24, 2007

Dick Cheney’s craziness used to influence foreign policy. Now it IS foreign policy....

***

The hawks are pounding the drums on Iran as they once did on Iraq, acting as if the hourglass is running out and we have to act immediately or, as the president apocalyptically suggested last week, we could be facing World War III....

In his new book, the former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton scornfully accuses Colin Powell, and later Condi Rice, of appeasing Iran, including some carrots to get them to cease their nuclear plans.

A top Bush 41 national security official told me shortly after Bush 43 got under way that the younger Bush team’s foreign policy was dangerous because it was so “black and white,” so dependent on “bogymen.” President Bush has settled on his new bogyman, once more ignoring the obvious choice of Osama. Yesterday, he defended his plans to build a missile defense system in Europe by raising the specter of Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

Hit with sticks, the bogyman responded with sticks. He said that Iran will not negotiate with anyone about its right to nuclear technology.

As Pat Buchanan noted on “Hardball,” “Cheney and Bush are laying down markers for themselves which they’re going to have to meet. I don’t see how ... Bush and Cheney can avoid attacking Iran and retaining their credibility going out of office.”

In other words, once our cowboys have talked their crazy talk, they have to walk their crazy walk.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/24/opinion/24dowd.html?hp

[BridgeTheGap]

1. They've never seemed to give much of shit about credibility

except when someone challenges it - i.e. Joe Wilson

[TwilightGardener]

2. Good article by Dowd. I wonder if she's right, that after all the bluster, ChimpCo

is going to have to back it up with SOMETHING military-wise to avoid looking like, well, blustering fools. Because it wouldn't be the first time they started and sustained military action for really dubious reasons. Still giggling at "I'm a Dinner Jacket".

[katty]

3. It certainly IS, Maureen - not a recent development, either