Bush's new McSpinmeister
By William Fisher
Asia Times
NEW YORK - As Karen Hughes, the close confidante of President George W Bush, gives up her mission to improve the US image abroad - amid mixed reviews of her performance - her replacement is already facing criticism for his support of the Iraq war and a number of alleged ethical lapses.
Hughes, a key advisor to the president since his days as governor of Texas, resigned her post as under-secretary of state for public diplomacy last week after just under two years in the post to return to private life in Texas. Bush has nominated James Glassman as her replacement.
Glassman is currently chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the organization responsible for conveying Washington's messages through television and radio to the Middle East, Iran, Cuba, and other areas of the world. Washington-watchers have speculated that he was nominated because he had already been confirmed by the Senate for his BBG post.
Critics of Glassman, who is a staunch neo-conservative, point to his early and enthusiastic support for the US invasion of Iraq.
In an article he wrote in 2003, Glassman said, "... the anti-war protesters remain clueless. They're still planning their marches. Instead, they should be apologizing. Before the war, they told us that 500,000 Iraqis would be killed in Dresden-like bombing, that we would precipitate an eco-catastrophe by pushing Saddam to set fire to his oil wells, that millions of people would flee the country, that thousands of our own troops would be killed, that the Arab 'street' would rise up, that terrorist attacks would resume ferociously on our homeland, that Iraqis would tenaciously resist our colonization of their land, that we would become bogged down in urban warfare, and on and on."
Glassman continued, "In fact, none of that has happened. It has been a war unmatched in history, with relatively few civilian and allied casualties and the prime objectives - control of the capital and the destruction of Saddam's regime - achieved in only a few weeks. Conscientious opponents of the war should say they were wrong, wrong, wrong - on all counts."
(Continued here.)
Asia Times
NEW YORK - As Karen Hughes, the close confidante of President George W Bush, gives up her mission to improve the US image abroad - amid mixed reviews of her performance - her replacement is already facing criticism for his support of the Iraq war and a number of alleged ethical lapses.
Hughes, a key advisor to the president since his days as governor of Texas, resigned her post as under-secretary of state for public diplomacy last week after just under two years in the post to return to private life in Texas. Bush has nominated James Glassman as her replacement.
Glassman is currently chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the organization responsible for conveying Washington's messages through television and radio to the Middle East, Iran, Cuba, and other areas of the world. Washington-watchers have speculated that he was nominated because he had already been confirmed by the Senate for his BBG post.
Critics of Glassman, who is a staunch neo-conservative, point to his early and enthusiastic support for the US invasion of Iraq.
In an article he wrote in 2003, Glassman said, "... the anti-war protesters remain clueless. They're still planning their marches. Instead, they should be apologizing. Before the war, they told us that 500,000 Iraqis would be killed in Dresden-like bombing, that we would precipitate an eco-catastrophe by pushing Saddam to set fire to his oil wells, that millions of people would flee the country, that thousands of our own troops would be killed, that the Arab 'street' would rise up, that terrorist attacks would resume ferociously on our homeland, that Iraqis would tenaciously resist our colonization of their land, that we would become bogged down in urban warfare, and on and on."
Glassman continued, "In fact, none of that has happened. It has been a war unmatched in history, with relatively few civilian and allied casualties and the prime objectives - control of the capital and the destruction of Saddam's regime - achieved in only a few weeks. Conscientious opponents of the war should say they were wrong, wrong, wrong - on all counts."
(Continued here.)
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