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Bush Alums Reap Their Rewards
As Paul Wolfowitz twists in the wind after being found guilty in a World Bank investigation of public payola to his girlfriend, it does seem that his career might finally be coming to an end. Pity that the Iraq debacle, which Wolfowitz promoted, was not sufficient reason for removing him from public office; instead, President Bush rewarded "Wolfie" with a promotion to head the World Bank. Add him to the rapidly growing list of Bush alums whose career trajectory suddenly plummets upon the disclosure of a pattern of lying obvious to most observers but not to the president himself.
To understand why scum consistently rises to the surface of the Bush administration, it is best to refer to the wisdom contained in the final memoir of the late, great Kurt Vonnegut. In an excerpt published in 2006, Vonnegut observed that "George W. Bush has gathered around him ... most frighteningly, psychotic personalities, or PPs, the medical term for smart, personable people who have no consciences."
How better to explain the unwavering arrogance of people—certainly Wolfowitz, but clearly he is not alone in this administration—who consistently get it wrong yet plow on undeterred by the inconvenience of fact or logic? Most of us, once associated with the grievous distortions of evidence and outright lies justifying the invasion of Iraq, not to mention the horrid waste and death attendant upon the subsequent occupation that Wolfowitz oversaw, would feel the need to pause for a spell of critical self-reflection. Not so Wolfowitz, who, unmoved by the death and destruction he wrought, sailed on to the World Bank and announced that he would fight what he claimed was that venerable institution's penchant for, yes, he used the word, "corruption."
Toward that end he would bring with him a score of Pentagon underlings whose hands were almost as bloody as his from the Iraq disaster. One of them, Kevin Kellems, former spokesman for Vice President Dick Cheney, suddenly resigned his $250,000-a-year job at the World Bank on Monday. Another veteran from the Iraq buildup to be rewarded was Wolfowitz's lover, Shaha Riza, his resident Muslim expert, who was promoted to a State Department position paying more than Secretary Condoleezza Rice earns. Not quite the $400,000 that Wolfowitz would be raking in at the World Bank, but Riza's salary had the advantage of being tax-free—she is still technically a "foreign national," despite her access to the inner sanctums of U.S. security debates.
Such rich rewards for folks ostensibly fighting world poverty would not seem troubling to the PPs Vonnegut referred to, as they are suffering from a malady that renders them morally tone-deaf. Citing what he calls the classic medical text on PPs, "The Mask of Sanity," Vonnegut noted in his "Custodians of Chaos" piece: "Some people are born deaf, some are born blind or whatever, and this book is about congenitally defective human beings of a sort that is making this whole country and many other parts of the planet go completely haywire nowadays. These are people born without consciences, and suddenly they are taking charge of everything.
"PPs are presentable," Vonnegut reminds us, lest we be fooled by their equanimity on talk shows, "they know full well the suffering their actions may cause others, but they do not care. They cannot care because they are nuts. They have a screw loose!" Vonnegut includes the executives who gave us the Enron and WorldCom scandals with the neoconservatives to indicate the malady's extent. This could be dismissed as the standard liberal claptrap—turning the culprits into victims whose illness made them do it. But I offer his observations as the most plausible explanation of the headlong pursuit of disaster, for themselves and the planet, on the part of these otherwise canny overachievers.
Yes, their mendacity does often catch up with them, and folks like Wolfowitz do not tend to be well regarded after they have lost the perks of power. The problem is that the truth arrives too late to prevent considerable suffering. Indeed, Wolfowitz's embarrassment at the World Bank is a minor inconvenience compared with the opprobrium he should be receiving after each day's dose of disaster news from Iraq disproves the cakewalk of a regime change that he had so assuredly promised.
Then, too, this lying lout will no doubt be rewarded with something similar to the $4-million contract that former CIA Director George Tenet recently received to share a few details of how he went about betraying us.
Robert Scheer is editor of Truthdig.com and a regular columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle.
© 2007 TruthDig.com
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17 Comments so far
Show AllMaybe Wolfowitz will like to go to Iraq and serve the poor, the wounded, and the dying?
Maybe he is capable of following his convictions into the front lines. Maybe he will write a "tells all" book and dedicate the proceeds to buy protheses for all those his big yapping mouth sent into harm's way without proper equipment or able leadership.
I offer the following explanation for the existance of people like Wolfowitz, Feith, Libby, Cheney, Rove, Rice, Gonzales, and the cast of thousands that support and aid them. Notice that I have left out Bush 43 because he is simply playdough in neo con hands and has not a clue what is going on around him.
Among the neo cons that these sciopaths work for a very special and closely guarded coolade formula is administered that will turn normal people into lunatics. It came to me quite by accident when I asked God for the Saturday night Lotto numbers and instead he revealed to me the secret ingredients, to wit: equal parts 1) type A personality serum 2) contempt for the average person serum 3) contempt for the sworn oath to uphold the Constitution serum 4) the driving urge to make money above all else serum 5) the never tell the truth no matter if you are caught with your hand in the cookie jar serum 6) the rat out your cohorts as a last attempt to save your own hide serum. 7) ego inflation serum. Mix these serums, stir well, serve slighty chilled and presto, another smiling, suave, monster has been created. I would have preferred the Lotto numbers.
Sociopaths is the the term I would use. No better than common murders, except a murderer might have a conscience. Remember Bu$h making fun of people he sent to death row in Texas. He gets off on killing and getting away with it.
How about the term:"White Collar Criminals"?
Or, try this:"Organized Crime"
Why is it so hard to understand this?
What you've got is crime with clean fingernails. Everything is outsourced. Someone else does the dirty work, and it all looks legal. The acts are "euphemized," given pleasant sounding or impressive sounding official terms, called memos or directives.
Then, they are carried out by people at a great distance, who "know not what they do", and often "do not know why or for whom they are doing it." They just are "following orders."
This is no great mystery. It is the way of corrupt government. In fact, the US doesn't really have a government right now. Hurricane Katrina proved that.
It does have a regime. And that regime is getting richer in office.
And a lot of people are dying because of its actions.
Just because there are no bright red stains on those white shirts doesn't make the activity any cleaner.
Don't know about the rest of you folks, but I'm already missing Mr Vonnegut something awful.
Have you noticed of late Wolfie has a real scowl on his face. For ordinary folk this would mean, the person is experiencing healthy shame, the conscience is kicking in or the gig is up....
As previous posts have indicated, these criminal types in unstained white shirts distant from the killing zone, no shame, no conscience and lets employ an expensive lawyer and hold on till the power is prized from their "cold dead clammy hand".....
These sociopaths leave an obvious path of mens rea, actus reus and in Wolf's case flagrante delecto....and yet hold onto power lest the real crimes be discovered.....
And so through the magic and wonder of the internet, I directed myself to http://www.cassiopaea.org/cass/sanity_1.PdF , an online 1988 5th edition of "The Mask of Sanity" by Hervey Cleckly. Characteristics of the Psychotic (Psychopathic) Personality - a complete lack of shame, inability to recognize mistakes and modify or correct behavior in a feedback process, a lack of the ability to experience empathy vis-Ã -vis other human beings, just to name a few - go far to explain actions of individuals suffering from the disorder that strike normal humans as incomprehensible. Given the psychological state of those afflicted, a common behavior manifest in the fact that none can bring themselves to "resign" from what has clearly become an untenable position can be understood to be a consequence of their "sick soul" condition.
Thank Robert Scheer for pointing us to one source of Vonnegut's wisdom, and one more book to add to our reading lists.
Vonnegut was clearly on to something; I have thought about the psyhcological makeup of these individuals for a long time, coming to the conclusion/diagnosis of Narcissistic Psychopaths. The shoe fits.
Recently, however, I find myself asking if they're even human - are we making an assumption? Maybe they, and the "28% of America" that supports the cabal, are from somewhere else. How can they be from the same species as you and I?
Just a thought....
to arpedkedarki:
Dont go that path. To deprive other humans of their humanity is always the first step towards hate and murder. How do you think that Christian cruisaders, US cavalry, German SS troops ... and so on were able to commit their crimes?
I tell you ... the first step is to declare your enemy to be "not human" or "lesser human". Killing men is hard; but wiping out almost-animals is one simple thing to do. It is the same over and over again.
So - dont go there. Not even for kidding. Because the way you speak shapes the way you think.
I'd make one wager of film that most if not all of this bunch has in common-the film of rallies in pre-war Nazi Germany.Remember thinking when I first saw them-Holy Crap!-these are effective. Much was learned by advertising and public relations types and of course heavy t.v. viewing makes the brainwashing even easier. Am not conviced that too many of this crowd are easily dismissed as ill-unless you term unmitigated greed an illness.
I try to figure out the kind of infighting going on between the "pragmatic" greedy and the Dominionists in this administration. Or does it just boil down to- Cheney sneers -the shrub smirks and the rest try to maneuver towards the biggest chunks of graft?
In 1975, Wolfowitz was placed in charge of propaganda and cover up of the massacre in East Timor.This particular bloodbath of approximately 200,000 men, women and children was green-lighted by Henry Kissinger(speaking of psychopathic murderers). It can, therefore, be said that calmly and dispassionately participating in genocides is something in which Mr. Wolfowitz has no inconsiderable experience.
Mr. Vonnegut, who should have lived forever, touches upon a vitally important point which the media at large is consistently getting wrong. Even the critics of our governing swine are using the word "mistakes" to describe the folly and fiasco of the neocon policies. They are NOT making mistakes, they wanted a complete destruction of Iraq, they wanted a total destabilization of the Middle East, they want the slaughter of Palestinians to continue. This is their plan, not their MISTAKE. As we speak they are planning the invasion of Iran. Do you really believe this will be just another MISTAKE? Even Noam Chomsky has been exonerating the neocons and their followers by putting forward the idea that even "elite intellectuals" and especially "elite intellectuals" are vulnerable to indoctrination, thus subtley positing good faith in these monsters and their followers as mere good faith ideologues as opposed to deliberate lying murderers. I say bullshit! They know what they are doing in exactly the same way that the rest of the world knows and sees what they are doing. The problem is, that some people simply cannot bring themselves to believe that such evil exists in the minds and hearts of men. And this is a boon for the neocons. They can hide in the shadow of this disbelief and in the cognitive dissonance and uncertainty which it produces. The neocons understand all of this not because they are geniuses but because history is replete with these lessons. Big lies work. This is not news to William Kristol, Charles Krauthammer, Thomas Friedman, William Saffire, Judith Miller, Richard Perle, David Wurmser. This is Poli/Sci 101.
fd32 May 10th, 2007 8:36 am
SPOT ON RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DISAGREEMENT W/SCHEER ET. AL.
CALL THEM CRIMINALS IN A RIGHT WING COUNTRY; LABELING THEM "PSYCHOTIC" IS APOLITICAL
Calling Bush and co. a psychotic coterie is a valid but limited perception. It throws limited light on a political situation and ultimately prevents political analysis.
These politicians and appointees are right wing ideologues enabled by a right wing culture. Their 'lack of conscience' follows from their right wing pov and the right wing nature of the US, which gives them maximum freedom to operate and do destructive and criminal things.
As for the crazy-but-charming psychotic stuff - I doubt they're personally any more 'personable' or 'charming' than your average think-tank-trained, type-a personality politician or bureaucrat on the right. For that matter, are they even as personable as Scheer or Vonnegut assume?
The anti-democratic values and criminal actions of these people - and of the voters who have enabled them - have political causes involving the historical weakness of the left in this country, the disenfranchisement of liberal forces, and the relatively organized right wing political culture of the present.
We could go so far as to say that PPs have ALWAYS run the world. A quick scan of a history book shows us wars, invasions, colonizations, and corporate takeovers without end, and the PPs are either in the foreground, reveling in the destruction they've spread, or in the backround, pulling the puppet strings.
One attempt to put a curb on the predations of the PPs is democracy, but for PPs, democracy is merely an enabling disguise that allows them to work behind the scenes.
They may not even be "mentally ill", they may be merely a human type, but that makes them no less monstrous in positions of power.
And it's not merely a question of a few megalomaniacs at the steering wheel. If the PPs are the central nervous system of authoritarianism, then the "hands" are the hordes of more passive authoritarians who adulate the PP leaders and carry out their dirty work. Without the hordes of willing hands, PPs would be helpless and scarcely dangerous.
RESPONSE TO KosmiKat May 10th, 2007 11:17 am
RE "PPs have ALWAYS run the world."
This flattens out history too much - not all governments or people have supported destructive choices at all times; opposition to so-called "PP's" can be effective.
"it's not merely a question of a few megalomaniacs at the steering wheel. If the PPs are the central nervous system of authoritarianism, then the "hands" are the hordes of more passive authoritarians who adulate the PP leaders and carry out their dirty work. Without the hordes of willing hands, PPs would be helpless and scarcely dangerous."
That's another way of putting what I was getting at in my post - but I restricted the question of 'enabling masses' to the US - electorates and leaders in much of the world opposed the US invasion of Iraq.
I agree with fd32 and einstein--the people in power (and I don't believe they are necessarily politicians) are well aware of what they are doing and the "mistakes" we see are because we do not (or perhaps cannot) frame our analysis in such a way as to make sense of why our "elected" leaders would do something so injurious to so many people.
I have always maintained (since mid-2001; before 9/11) that this administration would go down in history as the most corrupt EVER, like the Tea Pot Dome scandal on steroids, and that is ultimately what I believe has happened, that a group has taken control of the government in order (a) to make LOTS of money for themselves and the select, happy few and (b) to weaken the government so less checks and balances are in place to provide oversight to corporate America.
However, I believe that a combination of arrogance and power often leads to shoddy workmanship and I think the Bushies have seriously miscalculated because I doubt they understood the complexity of what they were unleashing quite as well as they assumed and also I believe they underestimated, seriously underestimated, the collective will and intelligence of the general public.
I believe the leaders in power are primarily greedy (and that greed is the truest barometer of their behavior) and the closest model I can imagine to explain them, metaphorically, would be organized crime but of an extremely sophisticated (and sinister) flavor. We are the Nazi's of the 21 st century--look how we treat Iraqis, no different than the SS in the late 30's and early 40's--and many of the "tactics" of the Nazi's are being replicated today. That is where I think the sage Mr V was so dead on; he understood the engine driving the train.
Imagine if President Clinton had given a no-bid contract to a company he worked for before becoming President; what would we have heard then? The Bush/Cheney cabal will fall (I believe) and when it does it will not be a happy time for those who feasted at their trough.
When the shoe drops . . .
The Bush regime is a total global disaster, far worse than anything the world has experienced before.
"The media is the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses." Malcolm X