I know I'm going to take shit for this - but in my heart of hearts, I believe "Wolfy" is a good person. And always has been. But again, put my known personality defects aside before you start to explore that. I'm in love with the McNamara parallel at World Bank.

This one will kill me - I hope Rummy finishes his assignment. I really do. I'm less confident it will happen than I was 3 months ago. But he just has one more 2-year tour to do. It would be the best thing for this country. We need to heal our wounds. We need to spend the next 2 years thinking about who we want to be our next Secretary of Defense. And our next State. and CIA. and FBI. and NSC. and a whole lot of other stuff.

Don't sacrifice that for the pleasure of crucifying somebody you have had it out for - for 6 long years. Kill the Hate.

Who will you replace him with? Who? You have no FUCKING IDEA. YOU HAVEN'T EVEN THOUGHT ABOUT IT.

Did you really want Bush to appoint his successor? Duh.

Sorry, that wasn't aimed at you, Mike. Boy, you know how to get me started, though. I've got an interesting relationship with this war. I hope to write about it at some point. I'm completely detached. And I wish I wasn't. I didn't vote for these people, you did. I hated his father. You loved him. I hated the man his father VP'd. You decided you would turn a Hollywood actor into a hero. But I'm crazy because I think this war was just?
Thats a good point. Kind of like billmon wish that the Democrats' NOT win control of the house and senate, due to his belief that there is even more shit to hit the fan to come, and dems are better staying out of the spray so they can come in clean to pick up the pieces...
I hope, once again, you accept my apologies, my rant wasn't aimed at you. I do like this billmon, thing, though. It looks like a blog, I'll have to read some of it, now. I just like anything that starts with whiskey in a dirty glass. Yeeeeeeeeeeeehhaaaawwww!
No apologies required, it was quite obvious to me the rant was not amined at me.

btw Billmon is brilliant, progressive but independent, his coverage of the Lebanon crisis was second to none, sharp as a knife. His knowledge of history and literature also continualy suprises me... I waste endless time following his links...

Wasting endless time is an art. Someday it will be honored as such. I'm appreciating Leonard Cohen now. I wish I had the opportunity earlier.
"Wolfy" don't ever call me Wolfy - but I realise you were refering to Wolfhistitz.

So your listening to So Long Marriane, John of Arc and Bird on a Wire (with no electricity init)?

I'm at the Oil Depleting Scary Fast Conference in London.  Some great talks and hopefully lined up two guest posts on Peak Oil and Aviation and The (fbig) Energy Gap.

Ill Doomer CW

Yes, I want Rummy out. Rice too. Now. Even under a Bush regime, there is time for damage control. When you're in a hole, the first rule is : stop digging.

Replace them with any two retired generals. (Oh -- if you can find any who haven't criticized the regime yet.) The US military have the training and skills to handle diplomacy and human resources, and they are professionals.

What I'm talking about is a caretaker non-political administration to see out Bush's lame-duck years.

It's not about hate. It's about damage control.

Put Colin Powell in.  The ultimate mea culpa.  Well, short of picking Eric Shinseki...
We've all read the Kazakhstan piece, right? Oh, wait, c'mon go and vote first. C'mon, Leanan, talk to me. It'll be good.
Shinseki is a chump. I rode on a C5 with him right when the whole army was adopting the black beret thing.  He asked me what I thought of it and I told him it was a stupid idea you can't get better soldiers with better headgear.  He gave me a generals coin. He is a politician and not a soldier.

matt

Oh happy day!

When Rummy walked...

Gates. OK, a general would have been better, but an old-school insider is as good as could be hoped. The problem is, he'll be taking his orders from Cheney.

Now. I think Rice should be appointed to the strategically important position of ambassador to Uzbekistan.