Did Bush manipulate Iraq data?

[Nicodemus Phaulkon]

I like the Wolfowitz doctrine. It disproves the notion that the short election cycles of democracies prevent long range planning. A country as large and influential as the US should not lurch from crisis to crisis, it should plan ahead. It should plan for its own benefit because the primary responsibilty of any government is to its own people.

The Wolfowitz doctrine isn't so much for the responsibility for the American public, but to turn various nations worldwide into more "americans". It is the marketing, advertising and then power-sale of Freedom™ with the same verve and methodology as the spread of Communism in the mid-century. Wolfowitz and the resultant New American Century are not so much concerned with domestic policy as foreign policy. This could be argued by the example of the intense pressures (and botch-ups) that the US is continuing to this very morning (Who shall we accuse of harboring WMDs today, Don?).

It's very interesting that an administration that had zero direction on foreign policy after the election of 43 now seems intent on shaking its fist at every nation on earth. Perhaps that's an indication of how effective a stalemate the Hawks and Doves held between the Departments of Defense and State in the early part of the term. Alas, with 9/11, the Hawks had all the jump-start they needed... and Powell's been fighting a tsunami ever since. It's also very interesting that a president elected™ on the basis of his domestic policy ideas now barely gives them a passing glance. Domestic policy seems to have taken on the "bandaid on a hemorrhage" status.

While the US would not wish to be seen as lurching from crisis to crisis, you would think that the 43 Administration would wish to stop manufacturing said crises for the sole benefit of CNN soundbytes. Better yet, perhaps the US would stop sticking their fingers into so many pies. After all, doing so tends to have dire consequences down the road.

Perhaps this ability for long-term planning does indeed show promise of off-setting the schizophrenic nature that the US has via their 4 year terms. Or, perhaps it shows that the 4 year terms, elections and even the two party system are a fraud. There are those in power and with influence that will have decisions made and ideas pushed, regardless of their position on the political spectrum... and the American public will never vote for them nor bring them to task on their actions.