Ozymandias and Empire

"The aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." ... "That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do." " Juan Cole has a posting today entitled; "Bush Ignored own National Intelligence Estimate on Danger, Nature of Iraq Insurgency Or, Ozymandias and Empire" in it he links to this Knight-Ridder report: "Intelligence agencies warned about growing local insurgency in late 2003" By WARREN P. STROBEL and JONATHAN S. LANDAY Knight Ridder Newspapers" Here's two excerpts from the article: Robert Hutchings, the chairman of the National Intelligence Council from 2003 to 2005, said the October 2003 study was part of a "steady stream" of dozens of intelligence reports warning Bush and his top lieutenants that the insurgency was intensifying and expanding. "Frankly, senior officials simply weren't ready to pay attention to analysis that didn't conform to their own optimistic scenarios," Hutchings said in a telephone interview. The office of Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte declined Tuesday to comment for this article. [snip] " In August 2003, with concerns about the insurgency growing, Bush told reporters: "There are some who feel like that the conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is bring them on. ... We've got the force necessary to deal with the security situation." " Presumably John "who death squads me?" Negroponte's minions didn't want to comment to Knight-Ridder in case he decided to exercise his "Salvadoran option" on them. Mr. "riding with the bad boys now" himself was in the meantime lieing his ass off testifying before a Senate Armed Services Committee as this AP report makes clear. A civil war in Iraq could lead to a broader conflict in the Middle East, pitting the region's rival Islamic sects against each other, National Intelligence Director John Negroponte said cackling maniacally in an unusually frank assessment Tuesday. "Now that our Pat Robertson decreed mission of getting the sand niggers in Iraq to murder each other has been accomplished we want to expand it a bit. If chaos were to descend upon Iraq or the forces of democracy were to be defeated in that country ... this would have implications for the rest of the Middle East region and, indeed, the world," Negroponte said wiping tears of happiness from his eyes at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on global threats. Negroponte served as Death Squad Organisation, Supplies and Funding Officer in Baghdad U.S. ambassador to Baghdad before taking over as the nation's top Director of cynicism corruption incompetence blood thirstyness and fucking over of the serfs intelligence official last April. … … … Cole's posting is here. (Cross-posted to Liberal Avenger)