Bob Woodwards «State of Denial» er en omhyggelig oppnøsting av hvordan Bush-administrasjonen planla å styre Irak etter at Saddam var styrtet. Det er en knusende fremstilling, og den som kommer aller dårligst ut er Donald Rumsfeld.

Det er vanskelig å fatte at enkeltpersoner kan få så mye makt i et demokrati, som Rumsfeld og Cheney. De sørget for å bringe motstandere og kritikere til taushet, innen forsvaret, etterretning og State Department. Når slikt kan foregå i et demokrati, må man lure på hva som kan skje i et diktatur.

Rumsfeld er maktsyk og en kontroll-freak. Han ville ha en finger på alle knappene, og fikk det. Det ble for mye å holde styr på. Likevel fortsatte detaljstyringen, med ødeleggende resultat.

Den som leser Woodwards bok, kan ikke være i tvil om at den manglende planleggingen var en av de viktige forutsetningene for dagens bloody mess.

Det var som om man ikke brød seg om at dette var et land i Midtøsten, med 30 års terrorstyre som plustelig skulle kullkastes. Man var sikker på at alt ville ordne seg og neglisjerte alle advarsler, selv etter at plyndringen hadde begynt. Tidlig fikk man vite at den ikke var spontan, men bevisst sabotasje fra Saddam. Man fant instruksjoner fra januar samme år der sikkerhetstjenestene og de militære fikk ordre om å lage kaos og plyndre og brenne.

Margaret Tutwiler var en erfaren pressetalskvinne for James Baker. Hun ble hentet inn fra ambassadørposten i Marokko for å gi Jay Garner, sjefen for den sivile gjenopbyggingen, bedre presse. Washington var forbannet på bildene av irakere som gikk amok med plyndring. Tutwiler ble venn med kona til kurderlederen Jalal Talabani, kalt Hero. Han sa noe til Tutwiler som hun senere aldri glemte: «Vi trodde amerikanerne ville tilby oss noe bedre enn dette.»

Jeg skal komme tilbake med en mer detaljert omtale. Men beskrivelsen av arroganse og maktsyke gjør at Maureen Dowds kommentar er helt to the point.

Poppy Bush and James Baker gave Sonny the presidency to play with and he broke it. So now they’re taking it back.

They are dragging W. away from those reckless older guys who have been such a bad influence and getting him some new minders who are a lot more practical.

In a scene that might be called »Murder on the Oval Express» Rummy turned up dead with so many knives in him that it’s impossible to say who actually finished off the man billed as Washington’s most skilled infighter. (Poppy? Scowcroft? Baker? Laura? Condi? The Silver Fox? Retired generals? Serving generals? Future generals? Troops returning to Iraq for the umpteenth time without a decent strategy? Democrats? Republicans? Joe Lieberman?)

The defense chief got hung out to dry before Saddam got hung. The president and Karl Rove, underestimating the public’s hunger for change or overestimating the loyalty of a fed-up base, did not ice Rummy in time to save the Senate from teetering Democratic. But once Sonny managed to heedlessly dynamite the Republican majority — as well as the Middle East, the Atlantic alliance and the U.S. Army — then Bush Inc., the family firm that snatched the presidency for W. in 2000, had to step in. Two trusted members of the Bush 41 war council, Mr. Baker and Robert Gates, have been dispatched to discipline the delinquent juvenile and extricate him from the mother of all messes.

Det er helt nødvendig å ta et oppgjør med denne politikken, for å komme videre. Mye tyder på at USA holder på å gjøre akkurat det, selv om europeere drømmer om noe helt annet: et ydmykende tilbaketog.

W. had no choice but to make an Oedipal U-turn. He couldn’t let Nancy Pelosi subpoena the cranky Rummy for hearings on Iraq. »He’s not exactly Mr. Charming or Mr. Truthful, and he’d be on TV saying something stupid,» said a Bush 41 official. »Bob can just go up to the Hill and say: ‘I don’t know. I wasn’t there when that happened.’ »

Bob Gates, his friends say, had been worried about the belligerent, arrogant, ideological style of Rummy & Cheney from the start. He fretted at the way W.’s so-called foreign policy »dream team» — including his old staffer and fellow Soviet expert Condi — made it up as they went along, even though that had been their complaint about the Clinton foreign policy team. A realpolitik advocate like his mentor, General Scowcroft, he was critical of a linear, moralizing style that disdained nuance, demoted diplomacy and inflated villains. In 2004, he publicly questioned the administration’s approach to Iran.

While Vice went off to a corner to lick his wounds, W. was forced to do his best imitation of his dad yesterday, talking about »bipartisan outreach,» »people have spoken,» blah-blah-blah — after he’d been out on the trail saying that electing Democrats would mean that »the terrorists win and America loses.»

»I share a large part of the responsibility» for the »thumpin’ » of Republicans, he told reporters. Actually, he gets full responsibility.
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An ashen Rummy was also condescending during his uncomfortable tableau with W. and Bob Gates in the Oval Office, implying that he was dumped because Americans just didn’t »comprehend» what was going on in Iraq. Actually, Rummy, we get it. You don’t get it.

»Baker’s no fool,» a Bush 41 official said. »He wasn’t going to go out there with a plan for Iraq and have Rummy shoot it down. He wanted a receptive audience. Everyone had to be on the same page before the plan is unveiled.»

They don’t call him the Velvet Hammer for nothing. R.I.P., Rummy.