banking services chronicle december 2020 pdf

 banking services chronicle december 2020 pdf

banking services chronicle december 2020 pdf published this article Powell ever the loyal soldier is a diminished citizen for his refusal to tell the chilling truths he knows about the madness of George W. Bush and his gang. In the best light Powell may think speaking the truth will make the world even more dangerous and make the nation even weaker than Bush has. In the worst light Powell is trying to protect the value of his book deal and his own reputation from the public exposure of the horrible decisions he joined in and the lies he helped propagate. Wilkerson has no similar motives. He praised President Bush  the Elder that is. He said George H.W. Bush is one of the finest presidents we have ever had and knew how to make foreign policy work. The current president Wilkerson said is not versed in international relations and not much interested in them either. Thats certainly why George W. Bush is content with an arrangement that allows him to focus on issues like establishing the religious right as the state religion promoting cronies for high office and doing the bidding of his corporate sponsors and the National Rifle Association. Delegating these foreign policy matters also serves Bushs personal pleasure allowing him ample time to relax at his ranch clear brush play video games and watch sports on TV. International relations would be the exclusive domain of Lord Halliburton and Field Marshall Donald Rumsfeld. Career military and government people national security staffers and the State Department play no role in the isolated decisionmaking. Just two voices always in harmony would sing the tune that becomes U.S. policy. They let the president know what they have decided but his participation is never really needed or wanted. What the hell does he know anyhow Congress has enacted laws that prescribe how the Defense Department State Department National Security Council and other agencies are to perform and interact to assure some uniformity and continuity in these important relationships and a decisionmaking process subject to review and oversight. Cheney and Rumsfeld will have no part of that system. Wilkerson saw dysfunction within the administration and an organization that is essentially outside conventional government and rules. I have never seen in my studies of aberration bastardizations changes to the national security process what I saw. It was a cabal between the Vice President of the United States Richard Cheney and the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on critical issues that made decisions that the bureaucracy did not know were being made Wilkerson said. Confusion and chaos resulted Wilkerson observed and then when the bureaucracy was presented with these decisions and carried them out it was presented in such a disjointed incredible way that the bureaucracy often didnt know what it was doing as it moved to carry them out. But heres where the National Security Council is supposed to take charge sort through the confusion coordinate the work and make sense out of the decisions. That responsibility is enshrined in law. But not with Condoleezza Rice running the show. Rice the vastly overrated professional sycophant didnt do her job but spent her time telling Bush everything was hunkydory. She was part of the problem Wilkerson said adding that she would side with the president to build her intimacy with the president. Rices private ploys harmed public welfare. What I saw was an extremely weak national security adviser Wilkerson said. That calculated ambitious weakness landed Rice the secretary of states job with the blessings of Cheney and Rumsfeld who knew she would continue to enable their cabal. The State Department offered its resources and expertise to plan what would be done in Iraq following the invasion. The department traditionally handled those situations and had experienced people to step in and do the job. But Cheney and Rumsfeld told Powell he could keep his people and plans at home. They would handle everything through their man Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith. banking services chronicle december 2020 pdf