June 21, 2004
Not every high profile book coming out this year and kicking Bush in the groin with gusto is from peace-and-love liberals and progressives. Now there's also the anonymously authored 'Imperial Hubris: How the West is Losing the War on Terror," which concludes that the bungling Bushies have left us with little alternative except all-out war throughout much of the Islamic world, burning a wide swath across the Middle East and much of Southern Asia.
(Click here for Political Animal's take on it. Follow the first two links in the first sentence, especially the second of the two, for more info about the anonymous author, including an interview.)
It's for another day to debate the merits of the argument--it has several parts, and comes in from an unusual direction, so it takes a little bearing-getting time. But that's my point: I'm finding it sort of hard to get a bead on it, myself, but its contempt for how Bush administration has mucked up the "war" on terrorism is incredibly clear. So I bet this has to be a real pain in the ass for the Bushies, because it's coming from such an unexpected and inconvenient direction.
After all: They've braced themselves for a spring and summer of book after book trying to kneecap them for running up ridiculous deficits, being in bed with the Saudi family, starting wars based on fabricated evidence, treasonously exposing CIA operatives for mere political payback, etc., etc. And Clinton's memoir and media omnipresence this week is the latest volley. And then there's the upcoming Michael Moore documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11," and the documentary based on Joe Conason's "The Hunting of the Clintons," and a the documentary about anti-war anti-Bush alternative historian and activist Howard Zinn--all coming out between now and the election.
Naturally, Bush's people have got their opposition research ready, and their distractions planned (doesn't look like we've actually lost any malls in Ohio after all, of course, but the summer's only begun). But . . . now here comes somebody with good intelligence credentials, already within the Bush intelligence hierarchy, no less, who suddenly rams into their flank by arguing that Team Bush is not being nearly bloodthirsty enough. I imagine they'll have an especially hard time juggling that extra orange along with the others.
My modest prediction: Very shortly after the publication of the book will be the abrupt announcement of a Justice Department investigation into the identity of the anonymous author. That's even though everyone must have known about it, and the CIA must surely have vetted it, long beforehand (in fact, one theory is that the CIA deliberately let it through because they're so tired of being the Bush scapegoat that they're finally kicking back). And it's even though Bush--he of "bringing integrity and honor back to the White House"--has yet to simply order the unnamed person(s) who leaked Valerie Plame's identity to Robert Novak to step forward now and tell what they know to the Justice Department investigators. Those--does it need to be said?--are different.
As always, when I see Bush in a bad situation that just got a little bit worse, I'm pleased. Although this anonymous author's argument is, indeed, bloodthirsty, it's not going to get comfortably dismissed by the right (or left) from the sound of it. We'll have to see where it all goes.
Who would have thought that a Prez who's famous for never having read anything (newspapers, books, briefing reports, clemency petitions) would help put a half-dozen non-fiction books and three documentaries on the charts for the summer of '04?
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