George R. Packard
President, International University of Japan;
Director of the Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University, President, U.S.-Japan Foundation
George R. Packard was dean of SAIS from 1979 to 1993 and is now director of the Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies as well as professor of East Asian studies at the school. He is also president of the International University of Japan. From 1965 to 1967, he was chief diplomatic correspondent for Newsweek. Prior to that, he served as special assistant to U.S. Ambassador to Japan Edwin O. Reischauer. In March of 1998, he was appointed president of the U.S.-Japan Foundation.
Packard Report - Jun. 2007
Although the US Congress gave President Bush what he wanted - a spending bill for the Iraq war without firm deadlines for pulling out US troops - May 2007 has been the worst month of the entire six plus years of the Bush Administration.
First of all, the month in which Bush's "surge" of American troops was supposed to be improving the situation in Iraq, it was the worst month for American casualties in 2007. Whether consciously or not, American newspapers and TV stations dealt with these set-backs in great detail, showing devastating scenes of combat and bloodshed.
Republican lawmakers who have docilely supported the war are defecting in ever larger numbers, with Senator Chuck Hagel leading the way. If Bush cannot come up with a major victory of some sort (such as the capture or killing of Osama Bin Laden), he will find many more Republicans becoming outspoken in their criticism of the war.
When Bush announced the appointment of General Lute to a new White House position of "War Czar" for Iraq and Afghanistan, he was greeted with ridicule. Why, he was asked, isn't he taking on this job himself? Or why is Steven Hadley, the National Security Advisor not doing it? It turns out that Lute himself had expressed doubts about the wisdom of the "surge." It seems that no one is capable of coordinating the activities of the Pentagon, State Department and Homeland Security Agency.
The scandal that embroiled Paul Wolfowitz at the World Bank added to the Bush Administration's discomfort. "Wolfie," as Bush had nicknamed the former Deputy Secretary of Defense, gave his girlfriend a huge $60,000 raise on top of her $135,000 salary in violation of ethical guidelines at the Bank. It is well known that Wolfowitz was one of the leading architects of the war in Iraq, and his European colleagues at the Bank were ready to pounce on any mistake he might make.
Wolfowitz has a reputation as a brilliant intellectual, but it is undeserved. One anonymous source said of his management skills, "He couldn't organize a two-car funeral!" He argued for the invasion and occupation of Iraq on the grounds of America's success in occupying Japan, with no understanding of the huge differences between the two defeated nations.
His equating of Israel's national interest with that of the US has led to accusations that he helped take the Bush Administration into Iraq in support of Israel. The internet is full of messages among Middle East experts charging the "Neocons" such as Wolfowitz, Richard Perle and Douglas Feith with supporting Israel. Senator Jay Rockefeller's Senate Committee on Intelligence is conducting an investigation into how Douglas Feith, the former Under Secretary of Defense, and a disciple of Wolfowitz, fabricated intelligence connecting Al Qaeda to Saddam Hussein and lying about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction. This topic is radioactive, since anyone who raises it will be charged with anti-Semitism.
Most embarrassing of all for Bush was the new information that came out about his Attorney general, Alberto R. Gonzalez. It seems that on the night of March 10,2004, Gonzalez, then White House Counsel, and Andrew Card, White House Chief of Staff, went to George Washington University Hospital on a secret mission. The Attorney General, John Ashcroft, was in the intensive care unit suffering from gallstone pancreatitis. On March 9 his gallbladder was removed.
Gonzales and Card wanted Ashcroft to renew the warrantless wiretapping of American citizens that Ashcroft and the FBI considered illegal. Ashcroft refused to sign off, as did his deputy, James Corney. Corney and the Director of the FBI, Robert Mueller, threatened to resign. Bush backed down and eventually agreed to make changes in the secret program. The whole affair smacked of comic opera, and once again made the White staff seem ridiculous. Memories of the Watergate scandal came flooding back. The administration appeared sinister, incompetent and stupid, all at the same time.
There is talk now of a third-party candidate, Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City, throwing his hat into the ring as an independent candidate for President. More escapades like the above could help to persuade American voters that a "clean sweep" is needed in Washington. More on this later.
- English Version Archive -
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