you make an interesting argument that the system of government in America should not be scapegoated so that individual responsibility can get swept under the carpet. Individuals are important. Rove chose Bush, and in an earlier time Kristol chose Dan Quayle to channel his ideas. Its strange how the smartest operators choose the dumbest politicians.

And George Bush. Did he select Douglas Feith, Rummy, Wolfowitz, Perle, Ashcroft, Abrams, Cheney, etc. Or did they select him? These people were the main protagonists for war in Iraq. Perle was called the architect of the war. Feith was his head propaganda minister.

Except for Cheney – who got voted in on Bush’s coattails – not one of these people were elected to their positions.

How do unelected officials like this, with their own wild-eyed agendas, get to hold sway over the the congress on such an important matter, and there is nothing wrong with the system?

1. He exchanged fluids with our Ratty.
2. DVT due to flying high and long to avoid air to air missiles.
3. Anxiety about Scooter singing to Fitz to try to get a reduction in porridge time – this leads to Dick having a surge of adrenalin causing an accelerated thrombotic reaction.

I don’t think Bush will need to pardon Libby, but we’ll see.

That’s why catharthis trials of the principals like these always underwhelm me as much as calls to change ‘the system’. It’s not ‘the system’s’ fault too many people failed it. Still, I bet the ‘system’ is energetically ‘addressed’ now, as another mechanism for culpable people to pretend they are not. Such are the ways those vast lemmings packs, without which Libby et al would have remained just another effete would-be Ism-ist, will slake their thirst for absolution of their own sins-of-omission-and-apathy. Reform the system. Shave any sin-committing head they can get in the stocks. Beat their breasts. Trumpet the new era. Sweep, sweep, sweep. String ‘em up. Fine. The Libby’s will get no sympathy from me. But the increasingly hysterical righteousness with which the barbers of Iraq will scythe themselves clear of the past will distract us all from being honest about our own culpability here, major or minor. And so as a democratic society we will doubtless make the same mistakes a generation or two down the track, choosing to forget again that when Burke warns us that all that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing, that ‘good men’ bit DOES mean ‘ME’, no matter how big (Congressman) or small (mere voter) is my role in our ‘system’ of democratic agency-and-responsibility.

Thanks for an interesting exchange all.

Worth noting as well is the tendency for incompetence built into the huge US bureaucracy and its warring fiefdoms – eg. State vs. Defence in the Bush first term – which was exacerbated by the “Decider-in-Chief’s” inattention to his job.