We Are Deeply Fucked

I'm a little late with this, but I still think it's worth posting. It's from a series of interviews that the Atlantic Monthly's Neil Bowden conducted with former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, who, I'm sure we all can remember was one of the major architects of the war, not to mention one of its loudest and most determined cheerleaders. This excerpt is taken from an interview conducted in November of 2004, just a tad over a year and a half since the invasion took place:

"You were one of those who was most emphatic prior to going into Iraq that Saddam had stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction."

"I don't think so."

"I can quote you."

"Okay."

I read him a line from an op-ed article under his byline in the British newspaper The Independent for January 30, 2003:

"There is incontrovertible evidence that the Iraqi regime still possesses such weapons." Wolfowitz had spoken in the same terms on numerous occasions.

"'Incontrovertible evidence' is a pretty strong way of putting it," I said. "How did you feel when you found out they didn't have such weapons?"

"Well, I don't think they don't," he said. "You say it turned out they didn't. By the way, read me the quote again."

I did so. Wolfowitz said he needed to go back and review his prior statements.

"But clearly you believed they had stockpiles of such weapons?"

"You are putting the word 'stockpiles' in," he said.

He was right: "stockpiles" was my word.

This deadpan comedy is wonderful-- post-Orwellian absurdism at its finest. I love how he sneaks in the "sly" self-exculpation by claiming that he in fact still believes Iraq has these weapons. Back in the real world... Oh, I forgot-- the Republicans clearly have been furiously poring over all forms of postmodern theory since at least the first gulf war. They must relish and wholeheartedly agree with Baudrillard's famous pronouncement about that ancient (ancient!) half-assed, pussy-ass foray into the region where we let the bad guy live and didn't turn the desert into glass or anything, when he said: "The Gulf War did not take place." That's right, the first gulf war did not take place. It did not take place, obviously, for if it did, why would we need to invade again? And why did we need to invade again? Certainly not because we went around arguing to the media and to other countries and their intelligence agencies, and, really, anyone that would listen, that Saddam had stockpiles of weapons before this, the only, Iraq war. We never claimed that. Why would we? Even though, for reals, he does have these weapons.

I suppose this disproves the Peter Principle once and for all, being that Wolfie has already moved on from his old digs in the Department of Defense. Now he'll be calling the shots for the World Bank. Expect him to have no hand in causing the next great global depression.