- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Read other letters about this article
Spencer is absolutely correct to point out the war in Iraq was hardly one w hadn't anticipated. While in point of actual fact he may not have personally anticipated it, clearly, most of those close to him like Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, et al, couldn't wait to be at war in Iraq from the very get-go.
Another, perhaps less significant quibble, would be with the characterization of w as a "goober" from the "frontier." It may be that the man is from Texas, however he is also "from" one of the blue-bloodiest East Coast families in the annals of the nation's history. He attended prep-school in the East, and bluffed his way through two of the country's most staid and mannered institutions of higher education.
By all rights, he was exposed to every convention of polite society and "good breeding" from the earliest days of his childhood. Whereas the rough-hewn edges of personal comportment exhibited by men such as Lincoln and Johnson might be winked at given their century and their backgrounds, w has neither to fall back on.
Either his "goober from the frontier" schtick is just that, or he really is a mannerless lout despite the advantages of his wealthy and privileged upbringing. In any case, he comes out a loser in the historical record.
