5/01 at DKos: Perle a #*$@ing idiot; 5/04 at NYT: Let's publish Perle

On Thursday -- "Mission Accomplished" Day -- we reminded ourselves of exactly how big of a #*$@ing idiot Richard Perle is and was.

He was, after all, the guy who wrote immediately following the Mission Accomplished Day Mark 1.0 that:

President Bush has led the United States and its coalition partners to the most important military victory since World War II.

And...

It ended quickly with few civilian casualties and with little damage to Iraq's cities, towns or infrastructure. It ended without the Arab world rising up against us, as the war's critics feared, without the quagmire they predicted, without the heavy losses in house-to-house fighting they warned us to expect.

And of course...

We will find Saddam's well-hidden chemical and biological weapons programs, but only when people who know come forward and tell us where to look.

Three laughably stupid assertions, even on the day they were made, and they've only grown more stupid with age.

So, how's the benefit of hindsight serving The New York Times? Brilliantly, as ever:

May 4, 2008
Op-Ed Contributor
Time to Cut the Cord
By RICHARD PERLE

Yes, because Richard Perle still owns a custom-tailored suit, he is worthy of publication on the New York Times Op-Ed page today.

Is he repentant? Not exactly. Though he starts off by implying that someone was a giant #*$@ing idiot five years ago. Just not him.

THE most important thing we can do to help the Iraqis and ourselves is to recognize — and reverse — the seminal mistake that followed the quick destruction of Saddam Hussein’s murderous regime: the foolish (however well-meaning) and arrogant belief that we know better than the Iraqis how to rebuild their devastated society.

Gee, I wonder how that "seminal mistake" got made?

It's not really worth anyone's time to analyze whether Perle's vision for Iraq has gotten any more clear-headed. It has, but only because he now recognizes that the ideas that led people to think that, um, certain American opinion leaders were giant #*$@ing idiots five years ago were in fact giantly #*$@ing idiotic. So, "Duh!" to them! Whoever they are.

The real question is why the NYT still feels it's doing anyone any good by collecting the three paragraph musings on Mission Accomplished Day Mark. 5.0 of the chief giant #*$@ing idiots who had it wrong on Mission Accomplished Days Marks 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0.

The least they could do is say that the price of publishing their thoughts is an admission that they're giant #*$@ing idiots. And if they won't do it, do it for them. Use that little bit of italicized type at the bottom where you usually tell everyone what a genius the person is:

RICHARD PERLE was an assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan administration and is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

And just add...

RICHARD PERLE was an assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan administration and is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. And a giant #*$@ing idiot.

See? Easy as pie. Corner office and a fat paycheck, please.

•  This "seminal" thinker

  is an insult to semen everywhere.

  by JoeW on Mon May 05, 2008 at 08:46:32 AM PDT

  •  and just plain insulting

    n/t

    by proudprogressiveCA on Mon May 05, 2008 at 08:48:50 AM PDT

    •  The Party of Personal Responsibility

      Because "Affirmative Action" need only apply to rich white dudes in suits with the proper last names.

      by WinSmith on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:01:20 AM PDT

      •  In US MSM nothing succeeds like failure !

        Predictive failure seems the fast road to punditry superstardom.

        by Troutfishing on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:14:57 AM PDT

      •  The GOP motto:

        "Mistakes will be made;
        others will be blamed."

        by MikeTheLiberal on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:36:36 AM PDT

        •  Also be good tagline for MSM ie Fox N/T

          by RomeyDa on Mon May 05, 2008 at 10:36:00 AM PDT

          •  Doonesbury had it best for FoxSpews

            "We decide. You concur."

            by MikeTheLiberal on Mon May 05, 2008 at 12:40:25 PM PDT

  •  "Seminal Mistake" When Dad Forgot His Condom

    Oh if we could only travel back in time and give him a jimmy hat.

    by bernardpliers on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:18:08 AM PDT

    •  How about a vasectomy instead? nt

      by MingPicket on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:18:44 AM PDT

  •  I think the 'seminal mistake" was

    made decades ago, by Perle's daddy.

    by LanceBoyle on Mon May 05, 2008 at 11:34:35 AM PDT

•  If I had made such horribly wrong statements

  ... I'd consider that small addition to the endline a charity.

  by droogie6655321 on Mon May 05, 2008 at 08:48:01 AM PDT

  •  but, see, he's one of the beatiful people

    and we're just dirty fucking hippies, so what do we know?

    It sure seems like Perle is full of it, and the cold harsh light of reality has totally invalidated the neocon agenda, but you never know, he and Dick Cheney could be right. And Rove might yet be a genius.

    And Pigs could fly.

    (actually, one did....and it voted for Obama)

    by pmukh on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:32:38 AM PDT

  •  "Fool me once, shame on you...Fool me twice,

    won't get fooled again!"

    from Shrubby, the philospher.

    by CParis on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:40:42 AM PDT

•  Advocating the killing of non-Americans

  is, was and always will be "smart," "tough," "serious" and worthy of consideration.

  by RickMassimo on Mon May 05, 2008 at 08:48:12 AM PDT

  •  Must be done w/xtra hurrumph and arrogance. n/t

    by Skid on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:37:34 AM PDT

•  Where's the Times McCain Op-ed?

  The New York Times should have asked John McCain to contribute a piece.  After all, like Richard Perle, John McCain has been wrong about virtually everything when it comes to Iraq.

  For a detailed history of John McCain's predictions of a short war and claims U.S. troops would be greeted as liberators to his casual attitude towards casualties and his ongoing confusion over friend and foe in Iraq, see:
  "John McCain on the Mission Accomplished in Iraq."

  by Avenging Angel on Mon May 05, 2008 at 08:49:08 AM PDT

•  how convenient

  ... that the NYT fails to cite:

  Chairman, Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee, 2001-2003

  but we'd have to be fools to think that they'd bother sharing that

  by wystler on Mon May 05, 2008 at 08:49:20 AM PDT

  •  And PNAC

    Don't forget Perle's PNAC creds. I want the signatories to PNAC to get some publicity, so I can prove to my friends that it existed. When I talk about PNAC, even my well-informed acquaintances start looking at me like I should be wearing a tinfoil hat.

    Haven't looked recently, is the PNAC website still up?

    by smeesq on Mon May 05, 2008 at 08:56:33 AM PDT

    •  ya had to ask?

      http://www.newamericancentury.org/

      (posted for informational use only ... kid, don't try this at home)

      by wystler on Mon May 05, 2008 at 08:59:22 AM PDT

      •  WTF?

        The Project for the New American Century is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to a few fundamental propositions: that American leadership is good both for America and for the world; and that such leadership requires military strength, diplomatic energy and commitment to moral principle.

        (Read:  You shall be assimilated, Resistance is futile)

        why did you have to link me to that site? now I'm going to have nightmares of bill Kristol with grey skin and pipes sticking out of his head chasing me into the bathroom.

        by notquitedelilah on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:09:54 AM PDT

        •  asdf

          in the interest of knowing your enemy opponent ...

          it's an organization that not hardly enough folks are aware of, rather than the other way around

          these clowns were the prime movers behind getting congress to condemn Saddam Hussein in 1998, which really was the point when it became clear to those few paying attention that, if (s)elected, GWB would invade Iraq as soon as the flimsy excuse could be fabricated

          so glad to have you now aware (and so guilty that i did so little to help in previous years)

          by wystler on Mon May 05, 2008 at 10:02:19 AM PDT

          •  Thank you.

            by notquitedelilah on Mon May 05, 2008 at 12:26:16 PM PDT

      •  I just checked it out, too

        I bet thats the most traffic the site has had in months.

        Noteworthy that there is nothing new posted on site since 12/06.  Also most of the "big" names are gone from the mast head. Is PNAC defunct?

        by smeesq on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:10:04 AM PDT

        •  they're laying low

          they saw the results in 11/06, and (unlike many of the Dems in congress now) understood what those results meant

          if by some happenstance our side manages to blow this thing in November, they'll be rolling again

          by wystler on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:39:59 AM PDT

      •  Amazing

        You would think they would have pulled that site by now.

        that American leadership is good both for America and for the world

        Just ask the people of Iraq.  What we need is American PARTICIPATION in discussions around the world.  We don't need the US trying to drag the world around by its nose to do whatever the hell stupid idea our current president has, no matter which party they are in.  

        by Tom Paul on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:50:50 AM PDT

•  Perle has help make millions for the Have Mores

  Of course he gets the job.

  The Mission WAS accomplished, War profits Galore...

  by owlbear1 on Mon May 05, 2008 at 08:49:27 AM PDT

  •  That was the well meaning part

    Well meaning for the Sauds, the Bechtels and the Haliburtons.  For Americans and Iraqis, not so much.

    by Nailbanger on Mon May 05, 2008 at 08:56:00 AM PDT

    •  Paid off for Iranian hardliners too. n/t

      by Skid on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:39:07 AM PDT

  •  Now he's part of central casting at AEI.....

    where he waits by the bat phone for further propaganda missions. This is how Goebbels started. But it ended badly. Let's hope and work that the whole U.S. doesn't have to come down as the only way for the cumuppenance of the swine Perle.

    by Barry Leonardini on Mon May 05, 2008 at 08:58:54 AM PDT

•  Translation from Perlese

  If only we'd installed Chalabi, none of this would have happened.

  by littlesky on Mon May 05, 2008 at 08:51:09 AM PDT

  •  Exactly -- still shills for Chalabi

    That is it exactly.  Perle  makes these statements about mistakes and ignorance now and then -- clearly blaming others, of course -- but he is not in the camp of neocons like Fukuyama who have become a bit more humble.

    On the contrary, if you read Perle carefully, he maintains to this day that if we'd simply installed Chalabi the day the statue fell, all would have been roses and sweets and we could have come home that afternoon.  Indeed, Perle still contends that we didn't even need to invade -- if we'd supplied weapons and air support for Chalabi's men, they could have toppled Saddam on their own.  The fact that Chalabi didn't really have any men doesn't stop Perle from believing this.  Nor is it clear what exactly Perle thinks Chalabi would have done other than stand there in the street waving his arms and yelling as looters stole the Armani suit off his back.  

    by dburbach on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:35:45 AM PDT

    •  Maybe Chalabi had/was to get the WMDs.

      And because he wasn't installed, they weren't found.

      by Skid on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:41:39 AM PDT

•  God forbid

  They should ever publish the opinion of any "dirty *$%#$@ hippies" (TM Atrios).

  by Upper West on Mon May 05, 2008 at 08:51:39 AM PDT

•  Perle....Kristol

  The fact that you can get everything wrong on Iraq and still get to espouse your  views in the NYT shows that maybe the debacle in Iraq is basically OK with the head hochcos at the Grey Lady.

  by frandor55 on Mon May 05, 2008 at 08:51:51 AM PDT

  •  I thought they were tired and misspoke

    They weren't wrong or lying, they were just overworked.

    Isn't that the standard defense this spring?

    by CroftonPark on Mon May 05, 2008 at 08:57:02 AM PDT

    •  Nope, It's Senior Moments

      by CityLightsLover on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:11:09 AM PDT

•  Why not?

  Their Op-Ed page is already overflowing with colosally fucking wrong stupidity from the likes of David Brook and Tom Friedman.  Why upset precedence?

  by Ken in MN on Mon May 05, 2008 at 08:52:28 AM PDT

•  Why I back Barack Obama:

  because being right on the war counts.  If it doesn't count, by all means, vote for HRC or McCain or Perle.

  by Inland on Mon May 05, 2008 at 08:52:47 AM PDT

•  Our media...

  Fair and Balanced:  Rational, reality based thinking must be balanced with insane people living in a fantasy.  And when the fantasy has been shown to be complete bullshit, the originators of that fantasy get to comeback and re-write history to prove that they have been right all along.

  by RichM on Mon May 05, 2008 at 08:53:57 AM PDT

  •  Oh and...

    It looks like we are wearing a Perle necklace now.

    by RichM on Mon May 05, 2008 at 08:55:50 AM PDT

  •  I just wish they would add

    'and was wrong about every single thing' at the end of those credentials for Perle.

    I don't care if they publish him, I just want them to point out the truth - he was WRONG. People think that all these so-called experts know so much, that they must have inside info and must be smarter than them, that they have some special insight into what's going to happen.

    They're not, and they don't. They're wrong more often than not. The media needs to tell people that. It's IMPORTANT that people realize who's been right and who's been wrong. That's the part they miss.

    by mmacdDE on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:05:29 AM PDT

•  It's okay. Barack Obama has a

  secret weapon to use against all these propagandists.

  by Kab ibn al Ashraf on Mon May 05, 2008 at 08:54:39 AM PDT

  •  I believe it's called the truth.

    But watching the scantily-clad Scarlett Johansson for an iPhone isn't going to help, titillating as it may be.

    by darthstar on Mon May 05, 2008 at 08:58:33 AM PDT

    •  Speaking truth to power is pointless.

      Power means seizing the apparatus of the State and using to our ends.  But sadly both factions of the American Private Property party are right wing, so it ain't gonna happen.

      by Kab ibn al Ashraf on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:06:20 AM PDT

•  Hey, Perle worked for Reagan, not bush.

  How is he to blame?  Oh, well, I guess his help leading up to the Iraq invasion does count.  I wonder why the NYT doesn't mention his ties to bush?

  by darthstar on Mon May 05, 2008 at 08:55:17 AM PDT

  •  Isn't his work on the Defense Policy Board

    more appropriate for this editorial.  Really, the NYT is behaving badly.

    by Nailbanger on Mon May 05, 2008 at 08:57:34 AM PDT

  •  Thank you! He

    certainly had a role, but all teh stupids seem to have forgotten that he is one of them.

    by Prof Dave on Mon May 05, 2008 at 08:57:46 AM PDT

    •  They don't call them

      teh stupids for nothing...

      by mmacdDE on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:06:07 AM PDT

•  why on earth

  would anyone care to read perle's thoughts about, i dunno, anything, especially about a subject about which he has been stupendously, fantastically, titanically wrong since well before the first shot was fired.

  better yet, why on earth would anyone feel compelled to publish such nonsense?

  "after the Rapture, we get all their shit"

  It's time: the albany project.

  by lipris on Mon May 05, 2008 at 08:56:32 AM PDT

  •  Not of this earth

    I agree. The loudest, most promoted and publisized opinioned voices are consistantly the most faulty, misinformed and usually straight up wrong.
    Was this op-ed by Perle published for irony's sake?

    by Skid on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:52:18 AM PDT

•  Rich Irony...

  When administration officials and members of Congress, with their diplomatic, intelligence and political advisers — whose knowledge of Iraq is often recent, shallow and wrong — hector and lecture the Iraqis who are struggling to find a way forward, I wonder whether we have learned anything from our past mistakes.

  Emphasis added to pot calling kettle black uberirony.

  by Dissentinator on Mon May 05, 2008 at 08:58:41 AM PDT

  •  Regarding:

    I wonder whether we have learned anything from our past mistakes.

    Well, Ron - can I call you Ron? Okay, Mister Dumbfucker - that anyone, anywhere, listens to you about anything proves that the answer to your rhetorical question is no.

    by Moody Loner on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:19:22 AM PDT

•  You have to be wrong to be a member

  of the Institute of Expertology.  Perle earned his membership, along with pundits like William Kristol who had to prove he was wrong on everything before the Times would hire him.

  by trinite on Mon May 05, 2008 at 08:59:25 AM PDT

•  Perle was a shill for Likud who sold the war...

  ...as an instrument of Israeli foreign policy.

  A Clean Break:
  A New Strategy for Securing the Realm

  Following is a report prepared by The Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies’ "Study Group on a New Israeli Strategy Toward 2000." The main substantive ideas in this paper emerge from a discussion in which prominent opinion makers, including Richard Perle, James Colbert, Charles Fairbanks, Jr., Douglas Feith, Robert Loewenberg, David Wurmser, and Meyrav Wurmser participated. The report, entitled "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm," is the framework for a series of follow-up reports on strategy. ..

  Moving to a Traditional Balance of Power Strategy

  TEXT:

       We must distinguish soberly and clearly friend from foe. We must make sure that our friends across the Middle East never doubt the solidity or value of our friendship.

  Israel can shape its strategic environment, in cooperation with Turkey and Jordan, by weakening, containing, and even rolling back Syria. This effort can focus on removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq — an important Israeli strategic objective in its own right — as a means of foiling Syria’s regional ambitions...

  Richard Perle believed that taking out Saddam Hussein was a critical element of Israel national security policy.  And when George W. Bush became president, he took his position in the Pentagon, and with other like-minded individuals (including Bush himself), made the policy into United States policy, institutionalizing lies about Iraqi threats against the U.S. as cover.

  Richard Perle is a traitor.  Plain and simple.

  by CA Libertarian on Mon May 05, 2008 at 08:59:54 AM PDT

•  They must Miss Judy Miller sooooo much!

  by DefendOurConstitution on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:00:00 AM PDT

•  I am struck with awe at how far the NYT

  has fallen. They refuse to report truly newsworthy facts about campaign irregularities and allow crap to be dropped on their pages like Perle's.

  Shock and awe. And outright disgust.

  by shpilk on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:00:09 AM PDT

  •  When was the last time

    you saw a FP above the fold big story on the deaths of American soldiers and/or Iraqi civilians?  Or in WaPo for that matter.

    by gchaucer2 on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:06:36 AM PDT

  •  Not really.

    The article makes it seem as if the NYT is pushing Perle.  Actually, the Perle piece appeared along with eight other short pieces under a general heading "How to See This Mission Accomplished".

    This is not the first time that the paper has allowed people like Perle, Kagan, and Bremer to show that they still don't understand how deeply their work product is despised, but it doesn't mean that the NYT supports them.

    by rhutcheson on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:18:11 AM PDT

    •  Yet not One among the 9 was anti-war n/t

      by nytcek on Mon May 05, 2008 at 12:57:48 PM PDT

•  When I saw

  America at the Crossroads on PBS I never imagined Perle was so soft and willing to make himself look a fool.

  http://www.pbs.org/...

  In short, you're in BAD SHAPE when Pat Buchanan makes you look like a doofus.

  by plok on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:00:14 AM PDT

•  My spouse's boss reads Perle's JP religiously....

  ...not surprisingly, though liberal in every other respect, he wants to starve everyone in Gaza because that's what Perle tells him should be done.

  by Phoenix Woman on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:00:34 AM PDT

  •  It's what they're doing right isn't it?

    by notquitedelilah on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:11:21 AM PDT

  •  Oh no,

    And I thought I was the only one with a husband like that.  I've worked on him these many years, and I think I've finally convinced him that even Israelis think Perle and the idea of starving Gaza is crazy and inhumane. It helped that one of my son's best friends from college is a Palestinian Muslim born in Gaza. Its hard to want to starve people when they have a real face and you like them.

    by smeesq on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:16:15 AM PDT

•  You can't be a member of the Institute

  of Expertology is you're right on anything or if you lack experience in being wrong.  That's why Obama can't get in, no experience.

  by trinite on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:01:29 AM PDT

  •  American Enterprise Institute for the .,,

    Criminally Insane.

    by irate on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:02:39 AM PDT

•  But there are those that are meant to lead

  and we the rest to follow. Always important to remind ourselves of the teachings of Leo Strauss.

  by Spud1 on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:02:15 AM PDT

•  I wish I knew the original source for this quote:

  "success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan"

  by irate on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:03:27 AM PDT

•  Pearle member of The Institute of Expertology !!!

  Join the other who got it wrong
  Christopher Cerf and Victor Navasky have come out with a new book, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: OR HOW WE WON THE WAR IN IRAQ, compiling the innacurate predictions pro-war experts have made before and since the invasion.
  The Institute's newest book, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, focuses on experts who assured the nation that war with Iraq would be, among other things, a "cakewalk" (Ken Adelman, THE WASHINGTON POST):

  "Military action will not last more that a week."
  -Bill O'Reilly, THE O'REILLY FACTOR
  "The next six months in Iraq will settle the case once and for all."
  -Thomas Friedman, THE NEW YORK TIMES

  "We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Saddam Hussein has been pursuing weapons of mass destruction."
  -Fred Barnes, Fox News

  "The evidence [Colin Powell] presented to the United Nations — some of it circumstantial, some of it absolutely bone-chilling in its detail — had to prove to anyone that Iraq not only hasn't accounted for its weapons of mass destruction but without a doubt still retains them. Only a fool — or possibly a Frenchman — could conclude otherwise."
  -Richard Cohen, WASHINGTON POST

  by RomeyDa on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:07:48 AM PDT

  •  I've got to get that book.

    I saw these guys on with Bill Moyers and they were fantastic.

    by trinite on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:09:25 AM PDT

•  I don't know about failure being an orphan.

  How many failures do we know who are considered experts and actually get invited to write op-eds or get paid real money to flaunt their failed opinions on television?  Maybe failure was an orphan in the distant past, you know, when people like FDR and JFK ran this country.

  by trinite on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:08:11 AM PDT

  •  When They Ran the Govt, Top Tax Rates WEre

    70-95% so we had nothing resembling today's giga rich  running the actual country.

    FDR faced no corporate realtime mass media in his first run, and radio was so new that he was the Howard Dean of his day becoming the star of the evolving medium. Nor did a military-industrial-intelligence complex exist in his time.

    FDR is little more practical examle to us than Sitting Bull.

    by Gooserock on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:12:25 AM PDT

    •  Read your history please.

       Many of FDR's reforms are still with us, and there have been consequences for the ones that aren't.  Remember, it was Bill Clinton who deregulated banks and trading in futures, and he did it in the last days of his administration.  We're seeing the consequences now.  These were cornerstones of the New Deal, and we had to have a Democrat trash them.  We still have Social Security, insurance on bank deposits, unemployment compensation, G.I. Bill of Rights, and the United Nations, but we still haven't accomplished what he planned to do after WWII, provide medical insurance for all citizens.  He would have accomplished that too if he hadn't died before the war ended.  FDR was not Sitting Bull. He created the lifestyle Americans had been enjoying until Reagan came along.  The consequences of what presidents do are sometimes not obvious until they leave office.  Reagan destroyed the progressive income tax and labor unions, and we have seen the results.  Bush is so bad he managed to destroy almost everying in a short time.  It's going to be difficult to get out of this mess.

      by trinite on Mon May 05, 2008 at 12:16:54 PM PDT

•  Mideast War & Empire are NYT Core Policy

  So if it isn't Perle it's going to be some other moran.

  by Gooserock on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:09:01 AM PDT

•  NYT has its head up its a**

  I read that News OTW in Review and thought, "Holy sh*t, what on earth possessed the NYT to pick these idiots?"

  I've been a NYT reader for, oh, 40 years or so.  My opinion of the "paper of record" has hit a new low.

  It's painful.

  by jeffs on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:09:05 AM PDT

•  Could I Get Published

  on the Op-Ed page in the Times? It would seem that clear-thinking is not a prerequisite.

  by CityLightsLover on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:09:29 AM PDT

  •  If you picked the Knicks to win the title

    for the last 8 years, do you think you could be frontpaged in the sports section?

    by God loves goats on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:14:42 AM PDT

  •  I don't know

    Once, I thought having a column in the Times would be an honor.

    Now, I don't know if I can write something smacktarded enough for publication, at least without resorting to l33t.

    by Moody Loner on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:22:38 AM PDT

•  WAS a giant #*$@ing idiot?

  Your edit of his bio is wrong.

  He IS a giant #*$@ing idiot.

  by bilge on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:09:54 AM PDT

  •  But not the stupidest fucking guy on the planet

    since that would be Douglas Feith.

    What a team.

    Plus Wolfowitz. Ugh!

    by kosophile on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:20:18 AM PDT

•  NYT, generally progressive, has pro-Zionist bent

  which leaves room for neocon loonies like Perle to slip through and get their $0.02 in. Tom Freidman is a watered down version of this.

  by Randian on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:10:19 AM PDT

  •  Tom Friedman.

    I think he's seriously overrated.

    by trinite on Mon May 05, 2008 at 12:20:17 PM PDT

•  The news media must be the only business..

  around that rewards failure.  
  Those who got things right about Iraq are still ignored and those who were wrong are still sought.

  by God loves goats on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:11:54 AM PDT

•  OT but...

  I'm watching CNN...

  Hillary Clinton is speaking about taking on oil companies, this oil insider who apparently under oath said the prices are being manipulated, etc and I noticed that when she starts making her actual stump (you know, when I'm president, we're gonna do this...we're gonna do that), she raises her voice, tries to drive home the talking point, much like Obama does so well in his speeches...

  ...only...

  ...I'm not hearing much from the crowd. No roaring cheers, no thunderous clapping.

  Doesn't she get it?

  by Stand Strong on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:16:18 AM PDT

  •  Your are right. That was OT. Plenty of

    of other more appropriate stories to post this to.

    by dogheaven on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:39:08 AM PDT

•  Actually Pearle seems to be saying..

  that we "arrogantly" think we know what the hell we are doing in Iraq and that they may be better served without our help.  I'm with him on that.

  by God loves goats on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:21:03 AM PDT

  •  No, by "Iraqis" he means Chalabi

    It sounds good, but from Perle those are neocon code words.  What Perle means (and he's said this clearly in other venues) is we should have simply installed Chalabi and the INC as rulers of Iraq as soon as we reached Bagdhad.  It's all about Chalabi, not the Iraqi people.

    by dburbach on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:39:44 AM PDT

    •  McCain and Lieberman got Chalabi

      on the U.S. payroll when they got Bill Clinton to go along with regime change in Iraq as U.S. foreign policy.  Bill Clinton was a fool to do this.  

      by trinite on Mon May 05, 2008 at 12:23:05 PM PDT

•  Sometimes...

  ...I think the NYT publishes the work of big f***ing idiots just to set them up as straw men.  Heck, what fun would it be if we had to soil our hands by picking up a copy of the Washington Times or the Wall Street Journal to read crap like this?

  by rlamoureux on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:22:23 AM PDT

•  All the non-apology apologies of these creeps...

  ...are just tactical neocon maneuvers to tack back towards some level of respectability.

  They should all be sent to Sadr City as "peace-keepers"...

  by Minerva on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:24:05 AM PDT

•  Perle, Kristol are Super Balancers

  The Times believes they have to balance truth with untruth and Perle, Kristol et al are the most efficient untruth delivery systems.

  by Maynard G Krebs on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:24:33 AM PDT

•  NY Times should cut the cord with Perle@!

  by Churchill on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:28:42 AM PDT

•  Perle has long been an agent for the government..

  ...of Israel for which he has been rewarded with investments in the arms and other industries there and here. He should never be let near another American government position. He should exersize his right of return and go where he belongs and apparently his heart is.

  by Bobjack23 on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:28:42 AM PDT

  •  When will one of them actually be charged

    with something, anything.

    In addition to five espionage-related charges filed against former Pentagon analyst Larry Franklin, two counts of conspiracy to communicate classified information to a foreign power have been lodged against former AIPAC foreign policy director Steve Rosen, and a single count of conspiracy against Rosen's assistant, former AIPAC Iran specialist Keith Weissman. The latest indictment [.pdf] reads like a spy thriller, and, while some of the elements were already known, there is much that is surprising, including the information that Rosen has apparently been under surveillance since at least 1999.

    Every once in a while I remember this and look and find...NOTHING happened.

    by ohcanada on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:38:17 AM PDT

•  I actually agree with what Perle wrote

  Even though it's an n-way tie between him, Kristol, Wolfowitz, Perle, Rumsfeld etc. etc. for World's Biggest Douchebag, he makes sense here and is what I have believed since the early days of the occupation:  that the self-determination of the Iraqi population, regardless of whether it is good or bad for our self-interests, is the only way that country will get back on its feet.

  by Ammo Hauler on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:30:28 AM PDT

•  Perle has Met the Enemy, & It Is he.

  by ROGNM on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:37:51 AM PDT

•  Sorry...

  but I think Kristol is much more of an idiot. But that is just my two cents. Perle is an idiot and hypocrite, but Kristol edges him out by a bit.

  Recommend if you agree.

  by kbella on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:38:53 AM PDT

•  Is there a difference?

  Aren't "fellow at the American Enterprise Institute" and  "giant #*$@ing idiot" exactly the same thing?

  by Tom Paul on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:39:44 AM PDT

•  Perle's not an idiot!

  He is a

  mooncalf:  

  1. a congenitally grossly deformed and mentally defective person.

  2. a foolish person.

  and..

  spineless

  1. without moral force, resolution, or courage; feeble:

  In sum, Perle is the exemplar of the right-wing, war-monger, capitalistic, chicken-hawk. When war suits his agenda he's gung-ho. Now, with the creation of the new state of chaos, Perle has no inclination to accept his role in any of it.
  He's the worst of the worse.
  The NYT is as responsible for this war as he is. Seems appropriate that he should become their cosset.
  NYT has no credibility and should be boycotted, just like Fuks.

  by Kairos on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:39:46 AM PDT

•  You made my day

  and probably added another day or two to my life with this

  See? Easy as pie. Corner office and a fat paycheck, please.

  I'm still laughing.

  by Ron Shepston for Congress on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:40:52 AM PDT

•  Dorothy Screws might think Richard Perle is

  more of a murderer than a big thinker.

  http://www.dailykos.com/...

  by sweeper on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:44:33 AM PDT

•  You're right that he's a giant #*$@ing idiot.

  But he's also part of something utterly monstrous: An Iraqi death toll topping 1 million human beings.

  That's according to a couple of British studies. Funny -- our newsmedia never really seem to get concerned with that number. I think it's fair to ask of Richard perle: At what point does your pre-emptive war become classified as a holocaust? Not genocide, to be clear, but with deaths in seven figures, that's a hell of a lot of people killed because of this administration's actions.

  by Cenobyte on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:51:03 AM PDT

•  my parents taught me

  When you break something, you fix it.

  So, the United States attacks a country in the name of helping its oppressed citizens, destroys the fabric of its culture, displaces millions, destroys infrastructure and economy, and then tells Iraq to rebuild itself, and to use its own oil resources to do it?

  by jim sfca on Mon May 05, 2008 at 09:55:46 AM PDT

•  Wasn't Iraq a "seminal" mistake for everyone

  who signed off, at least everyone with at least one Y chromosome?  And since "Real men [still] want to go Tehran," the problem still isn't fixed.

  Maybe we need to call in Grover, circa 2005.  

  by MaryCh on Mon May 05, 2008 at 10:04:20 AM PDT

•  Can't they do that with every column?

  William Kristol is one of America's major assholes. At present he is our Right-Wing Nut in Residence, because people keep accusing us of having an agenda, and we are frightened.

  William Safire was Spiro Agnew's speechwriter. Safire is nevertheless quite engaging and respectable, and the Agnew thing was a long time ago.

  by archer070 on Mon May 05, 2008 at 10:09:12 AM PDT

•  You can't write "#*$@ing" in the NYT

  It has to end with:
  And the biggest douche in the universe!

  by Ralph Kramden on Mon May 05, 2008 at 10:36:57 AM PDT

•  the closest I have ever come to punching someone

  was talking to Perle on the National Mall when he had the audacity to appear when the "Eyes Wide Open"- empty boots of soldiers and shoes of Iraqis- was displayed 2 years ago.  I confronted him with the picture of my son, killed while looking for WMD in Iraq.  I laid my hand on his shoulder and demanded that he look me in the face and look at my son's picture and know that this was the result of the war he wanted.  He dared to tell me he thought someday I would understand.
  Other parents were there, and some Iraq Vets, and we all held each other in check.  However, it tested all of my Christian principles and restraint to stand in front of him.  

  For those like him who championed and dreamed up this war, there can be no abdication of responsibility for the catastrophe that followed and continues in the misery we call the war in Iraq. They carry this stain on their own souls.

  And for the Senators and Congressmen who wring their hands and say they were mislead, I would ask them, why  did you not listen to the millions and millions of people across this World who begged for more time before the invasion and begged to have the facts examined?  For those in power one could ask who are you not listening to now whose truth will soon become painfully evident?

  there are children dying in Iraq who were not even born when the war began. Pray for the children.

  Celeste Zappala
  Mother of Sgt Sherwood Baker, KIA 4/26/04

  by peacevoice on Mon May 05, 2008 at 10:47:02 AM PDT

•  let's not forget this golden oldie:

  “And a year from now, I’ll be very surprised if there is not some grand square in Baghdad that is named after President Bush." -  9/22/03

  http://thinkprogress.org/...

  by goodlittlesquid on Mon May 05, 2008 at 11:29:02 AM PDT

•  Perle

  Perle is a Conspirator----and a Oil Maggot.
  Enough said.

  by edscan on Mon May 05, 2008 at 03:38:25 PM PDT

•  PNAC guys want us to enter Iran, now, so they are

  re-inventing themselves as "against Iraq" and "smarter than Bush" hoping people will forget how they fathered that bouncing bundle of unmitigated hell.

  They have nothing to lose by pretending to be with the majority of Americans who want us to get out of Iraq, because, hey, it's a quagmire, so they get to keep that baby and start in on another one.

  Yes, it's high time we "cut the cord" all right.  They do need a few snips in the right places so they can't @#$%& us into becoming the not so proud parents of another gleam in their evil eyes.

  The NYTimes enabling that @#$%ing idiot comes as no surprise.  They have been enabling these wars from Judith Miller to sitting on Risen's Pulitzer Prize winning article until after the election of Bush '04 to hiring Kristol.

  by USA rescue on Mon May 12, 2008 at 05:19:09 PM PDT