Hostilities force Bush* into deep hole

Strategy pushing US into 'abyss'

The Pentagon was attempting the difficult task of digging itself out of the hole dug by the Abu Ghraib prison outrage when it suffered yet another potentially serious setback in Iraq.

As in Najaf and Falluja and at other flashpoints, US forces appeared to have been sucked in by the insurgents' strategy: fighting back, killing civilians and in turn strengthening the rebels' support base.

George Bush continued to paint a determinedly optimistic picture, insisting that "a lot of progress" had been made towards the transfer of sovereignty on June 30, despite the assassination at the weekend of the head of the US-appointed governing council, Abdul Zahra Othman, also known as Izzadine Salim.

He also claimed that 11 ministries were being "capably run by Iraqi citizens".

But across town in Congress even those instinctively sympathetic to the US military cause in Iraq were warning that America was facing a strategic disaster.

more…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1220792,00.html

...or reading.

Apropos, too.

His buttons are buttoned, there is no Saliva on his chin, and for some strange reason eyes aren't crossed and are clear.

Probably paid others to do his assignments.

... is ridiculous. The schools with the excellent and deserved reputations are Harvard College and Harvard Law School. Damned near anyone with enough money can get a Harvard MBA. Harvard Business School? It's Charm School (a University Cash Cow) for the Wealthy and (Corporate) Connected. As a manager in Corporate America, I had quite a few MBAs reporting to me. Chicago? Super. Loved 'em. Carnegie-Mellon? Very good. State schools? Quite good, usually. Stanford? Very mediocre (and often quite lazy). Harvard? Forget it. The teaching approach at Harvard is "the case method." Students are part of teams assigned a project. The team earns the grade. Compared to the University of Chicago, Harvard MBAs couldn't analyze their way out of a wet paper bag open at both ends. They were incapable of looking at work flow and evaluating business processes and didn't comprehend a "management control" when they tripped over it or fell into a hole it was supposed to fill. Their math skills were abominable. But ... they attended alumni events religiously and maintained their Rolodex's obsessively!

Your description of the Harvard MBA graduate fits in with everything I read about George W. Bush; rich boy surrounding himself with 'teams' to do all the work with loyalty as being more important than anything else. It scares me that this is how the country is currently being run. :scared:

Thank you for sharing your experiences with us.

I went to college (undergraduate and graduate) at the same time as DimSon, but I was far more naive. It took me years before I discovered how much one could cheat. (Part of that was because my first two years were at a service academy where there was comparably far, far less cheating. Hell, it wasn't until my 4th year in college that I realized I could drop courses where I was having difficulty: GPA "management". It never occurred to me, since I struggled to earn enough for the tuition and fees as it was.) While much hasn't changed since those days (fraternity "files" of tests and such), it's important to recognize how much the Viet Nam War affected college life. First, probably because faculty was generally sympathetic to guys who were staying in college to avoid the draft, various cheating and "assists" were probably not rooted out with as much verve as today. Guys WITH brains but WITHOUT money could do work (take tests and write papers) for guys WITHOUT brains but WITH money. It was a black market "student aid" economy. Even at the less expensive schools, this was widespread. At Yale, the cheating was almost legendary -- since smart students without money had a helluva time with Yale tuition and fees. (Perhaps some of my antipathy is based on the fact that we cadets at the USCGA pretty much detested the Eli's in their sports cars at the women's colleges where we were dating the same women.)

I have virtually no doubt whatsoever that DimSon found others to do his coursework for him. Harvard Business School was tailor-made for his academic "approach."

Maybe you met the wrong Harvard Business School graduates but I dont think you have observed or worked with that many grads of the school to make such sweeping statements.

I worked with MBAs from Chicago and other schools on Wall Street doing investment banking, and I wasnt too impressed with every MBA I met from those schools. That doesnt qualify me to denigrate those schools.

Team grades are only small part of a student's grade at HBS.

The average HBS student has better college grades, better prior work experience and higher GMAT scores than the student at any other business school in the world.

I graduated Harvard Business School in 1997 and I can assure you the majority of the students were very, very smart people, the top 10% of the class I would even call them geniuses.

Which gw* would not be part of that group. In addition, the the "case method" provides a student a way to slide through the course.

If a company relies solely on a grad having an MBA without considering other qualifications than they are asking for it.

If I was a major business owner I would not hire gw*. The only thing he has to offer is the **** name. And at this time it may become a liability especially after this election.

It's overrated, for one. Every time I was ever on a team of any kind, with the exception of musical groups, I always felt held back, and the collective wisdom of the group was far lower than if I had been allowed to do it myself. Taken on a larger scale, that's what I hate about bureaucracy -- basically, it boils down to making sure everyone has a say, so as not to hurt the big babies' fragile little egos. The problem is multiplied a hundredfold at the level of the US government, where a good many of them are more considered with being celebrities than governing and legislating. And then, when things go wrong, which a team never admits, they take this half-assed "collective evaporative guilt" approach which basically absolves them individually of ever having to admit, "Yeah, I screwed up."

A perfect example is the 9/11 commission. Or the prison scandal hearings. Oh sure, some low-level functionaries will get fired and some harsh words will be tossed around but no one will have to feel any real pain (despite what they protest for the cameras). But in either case, everyone will be absolved and they will go on with some b.s. "lessons learned" crap -- hello, why do you have to have a catastrophe happen before you have to learn a lesson? Are you not smart enough ahead of time to think of the consequences of something?

Whatever happened to critical thinking and self-reliance, the hallmarks of the truly intelligent individual?

is the method that was described to me as used by Wesleyan College here in Fort Wayne. After hearing about it and the problem with individuals in the team not completing their assignments or not performing to acceptable level I figured that was the gw* method.


Glad to hear from someone that has more experience with MBA rejects.

"If the presidential election were held this week, who would you vote for? * 212341 responses
George W. Bush 30%
John Kerry 65%
Ralph Nader 5%"

I think it's especially interesting considering the VOLUME of votes. From what I can recall, usually when Kerry is leading by this much, the voting is under 5000 responses.

"Administration critics, as well as a growing number of Republican moderates, are arguing that to salvage the situation in Iraq the administration will have to jettison many of its other policy goals and political ambitions.

For example, it will have to give up all hope of establishing permanent military bases in Iraq, securing advantages for US firms, and staying out of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "

FINALLY!



peace

For example, it will have to give up all hope of establishing permanent military bases in Iraq, securing advantages for US firms, and staying out of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

Does this mean "give up all hope of...staying out of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict", or does it mean we should stay out of it?

I'd hope the latter - at the very least, we need to cut off funding for the Israeli military, and stop funding the Israeli government's war crimes.

I think, though, that it's the former - that we must re-engage the issue. And my question is, will we be an honest broker?

I tend to doubt it. Severely.

does it mean iraq not supporting the palestians :shrug:

either way it doesn't bode well for the neoCONs.

peace

it would mean no more blind support for Sharon and serious committed re-engagement with efforts to secure a lasting peace. Could Kerry persuade Clinton to take it on?

see it. They will NOT give up their putrid agenda easily and NO number of deaths are gonna stop them. Looks like they are about to receive yet ANOTHER blank check from our worthless and spineless congress.

Quch!....That's going to really hurt Bush/Cheney and all his
EVIL OIL buddies. :bounce:

reinforcing the notion the Bush/Cheney team are nothing more than petty THUGS! Who have all the resources in the world at their disposal and except for the capture of Saddam, are miserable failures at everything they touch, and are the most hated people in the world.

"Administration critics, as well as a growing number of Republican moderates, are arguing that to salvage the situation in Iraq the administration will have to jettison many of its other policy goals and political ambitions."

yes, please do jettison policy goals that assist the American people.

"For example, it will have to give up all hope of establishing permanent military bases in Iraq, securing advantages for US firms, and staying out of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

Halliburton, wounded and bleeding? What a shame!

...for the stellar job you've done of creating the mother of all clusterfucks. You've changed the world, just like you set out to do. Bit with slightly different results than you were selling.

Samurais who disgraced and dishonored themselves so thoroughly had a way of at least trying to atone. May I suggest that you try it?

I'd prefer a war crimes trial at the Hague, followed by hanging for treason.

Hey, it's the least the world can do for these madmen (and madwomen)!

More to the point, it's our duty as American citizens. They must be held accountable.

(even for these extreme criminals). Otherwise I am with you.

STORY:
Anthony Cordesman, a military scholar at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said the most serious problem in US government was "the fact that a small group of neo-conservative ideologues were able to substitute their illusions for an effective planning effort by professionals".

General Hoar was equally scathing about the calibre of the Bush administration.

"The policy people in both Washington and Baghdad," he said, "have demonstrated their inability to do a job on a day-to-day basis this past year."

-----------------

I can think of two sentimental buildings in Lower Manhattan and several friends who would still be around if we had professionals in charge beginning January 2001 rather than a pack of ideologues with grand illusions. Vote Kerry: You'll be saving people's lives.

was deployed at the hands of Bush with his delusions of grandeur.
:eyes:

country and humiliate him regularly and take photos for world wide unedited distribution. (of course according to Georgie's Geneva Convention) wink!

I'm just sayin..

""Anyway you look at this,

outside the most extreme optimistic assessments,

we end up weaker,"

a senior Republican international strategist said."

That's serious erosion in the Conservative base's sense of things, given their bravado and arrogance going in.

OH AND THIS ONE!

Anthony Cordesman, a military scholar at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said

the most serious problem in US government was "the fact that a small group of neo-conservative ideologues were able to substitute their illusions for an effective planning effort by professionals".

wtf!! All they had to do was stop buy DU one day a week and read up a bit to have learned that 2 years ago.

Gebus H Kryst when are these people gonna wake up?

Cordesman got somewhat emotional when he said "the invisible names of the neocons are written on the body bags leaving Iraq, just as the neoliberals' names were on the ones leaving Nam", like that. This c-span coverage may be rebroadcast. He was quite tough on the neocons.

Like in this report:

The time has come to face this reality. There was never a time when neoconservative
fantasies about the Middle East were anything but dangerous illusions. Those fantasies
have killed and wounded thousands of American and Coalition allies, and now threaten
the US with a serious strategic defeat. It may not be possible to avoid some form of
defeat, but the US must make every effort to do so, and this means junking the
neoconservatism within the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Vice President?s
office, and the NSC and coming firmly to grips with reality.

Report - http://csis.org/hill/ts040519cordesman.pdf


CSIS - http://www.csis.org/hill/testimony.cfm

The testimony was stunning. Oh, some of the experts still haven't given up on the idea that the US can "fix" Iraq, but this is a big turn-around for some of them. Cordesman is a WMD expert who was NOT opposed to the war before.

Does anyone know where to get a transcript? I taped it and can review it, but it's easier to just read a transcript.

Anyway, you can watch it at C-span.org I think. And maybe it will be rebroadcast over the weekend....

The other experts were Phoebe Mann and Larry? Diamond (he's still a neo-con, I think, but on the defensive).

This was interesting, but STILL congress (Dems too, not only GOPs) seems to think that the situation can be turned around. Boxer was a little skeptical, though. At the end is a long self-indulgent rant by Biden that was painful to watch. Oh well.

but i am pretty darned happy watching the wheels come of this one. I have a sadistic glee watching Bushie slide into the pits

"have a sadistic glee watching Bushie slide into the pits"
And I also hope there are crocodiles and Pitt Bulls at the bottom.

As much as things are starting to unravel in the BWH..
When these people are cornered, they become very dangerous.
Be on your guard from here on in...
remembering what Bush said about how he'll be remembered in history..
"I don't know, we'll all be dead."

It's called guerrilla warfare. It's the one type of warfare we can't fight, for many reasons. This is what we faced with the Viet Cong in Viet Nam. After 15 years of trying, we finally had to throw in the towel and go home. And we were NOT the first ones to try. The Russians tried first. Then came the French. They were all bested by the guerrillas.

Some people might think that we can just increase our firepower. Instead of shooting at civilians, let's blow the whole village off the map! Buildings, bushes, donkey carts.

...the only problem is, there are other towns nearby. We blow that one up. There are still more. And there will be more resistance fighters signing up for the cause.

And that is why we can never win. Stan Goff said that man for man, dollar for dollar, the US armed forces are the most inefficient in the world.

Destroy one mound, and two sprout up in its place!

Note that is isn't "good progress" anymore.

and he too had to face reality...

"except for the capture of Saddam"

The Kurds caught Saddam and the US reneged on the $25 Million reward.

Yesterday, we killed 45 innocents at a wedding party. Yesterday, Israeli forces tanked and helicoptered 10 innocent women and children to death. Yesterday, the White House proudly announced that Shrub Lite spent the afternoon partying with some college athletes, and didn't have time to even discuss the muddle east. How's that for progress and preferences?

and makes very legitimate points.

But, is there any indication that * knows what's happening around him? Is there a dent in the WH consciousness?

I don't think so. The only thing they will understand is a crushing defeat in November and imminent jail time.

Maybe only then will they realize what havoc they have wrought upon the planet. :-(

That 's what we're going to need to bring about the crushing defeat in November.

>Hostilities force Bush* into deep hole

Some might even call it a "spider" hole.