Cause–>Effect, Reprise 1

A while ago, I explained how conservatism is morally and intellectually bankrupt, pointing out that, when conservative policies fail, conservatives claim that X (the policy-maker waving their flag) must not be a “true conservative” and therefore must be responsible for the failure.

Comes now a true believer to demonstrate a corollary to that postulate (not a theory, a postulate, that is, a fundamental truth from which flows the remainder of reasoning):

When conservative polices fail, it is not because they were wrong, well, from the git-go, but because they were betrayed by Bad People who, ergo, must not be “true conservatives.”

Douglas Feith, one of the architects of the of the War in Iraq, has delivered himself of a mighty tome in which, according to news reports, he blames everyone except Donald Rumsfeld and, natch, himself, for the debacle in Iraqcle.

These people never made a mistake for which they took responsibility.

In the world of conservative ideology, the failure of their polices is always someone else’s fault, because they are always right; they are never wrong.

Just ask them.

Douglas J. Feith, in a massive score-settling work, portrays an intelligence community and a State Department that repeatedly undermined plans he developed as undersecretary of defense for policy and conspired to undercut President Bush’s policies.

Among the disclosures made by Feith in “War and Decision,” scheduled for release next month by HarperCollins, is Bush’s declaration, at a Dec. 18, 2002, National Security Council meeting, that “war is inevitable.” The statement came weeks before U.N. weapons inspectors reported their initial findings on Iraq and months before Bush delivered an ultimatum to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Feith, who says he took notes at the meeting, registered it as a “momentous comment.”

Although he acknowledges “serious errors” in intelligence, policy and operational plans surrounding the invasion, Feith blames them on others outside the Pentagon and notes that “even the best planning” cannot avoid all problems in wartime. While he says the decision to invade was correct, he judges that the task of creating a viable and stable Iraqi government was poorly executed and remains “grimly incomplete.”

Contemporary conservatism is not an ideology. It’s a circle of jerks.