Re: [Salon] Iraq 20 Years: The Uses and Abuses of National Intelligence Estimates

[Todd Pierce <todd.e.pierce@icloud.com>]

With all respect Tom, didn’t you tell me a few years ago in an email that I still have, when you first "chastized” me for my criticism of the Vietnam War as “unwinnable,” as General Weyand had said while it was going on, that it was “winnable?” If only we had waged the war like Barry Goldwater called for; “unlimited,” and up to and including the use of nuclear weapons? I’m not saying that was your position, but it was Barry Goldwater’s, which is relevant today as we “hear calls" for returning to the “Traditional Conservatism” of Goldwaterism. Which is the “Godhead” of "Traditional Conservatism,” as you’ve said, as well as of Neoconservatism, which you avoid admitting. And now also of "National Conservatism,” the “New Right,” variously pushing for the election of Trump, or DeSantis, making their identical ideology, and its genealogy, relevant to the present. 

And thereby justifying and legitimizing Scoop Jackson Democrats (Neoconservatives) as well who deliberately and consciously adopted the precepts of Goldwaterism to better compete electorally with Republican “National Security State Ideology” fanatics. With those war fanatics festering in both parties today, and fully apparent as to which faction is worse everytime a vote is taken to increase the US War Budget, with no need to guess their “true nature” by their votes. With the only distinction being that Republicans always insist on an amount of increase about 25-35% above the highest amount the Democrats call for (“look it up,” as one fiction writer made a refrain of in a long ago story, with that replaced today with: JFGI).

> On Mar 20, 2023, at 8:45 PM, Tom Pauken via Salon <salon@listserve.com> wrote:
> 
> Excellent analysis by Ray McGovern. As a military intelligence case officer and intelligence analyst for J2, Strategic Research & Analysis in Vietnam, I saw the abuse of intelligence where higher ups had their conclusions of what they wanted and worked backward to get the “right intel”. Those who operated like that were military careerists who didn’t care about searching for the truth. Here, you have neoconservatives with their own agenda who wanted to find intelligence to support their interventionist plans and certain careerists willing to go along. Tom Pauken
> 
> Sent from my iPad
> 
>> On Mar 20, 2023, at 7:34 PM, Chas Freeman via Salon <salon@listserve.com> wrote:
>> 
>> https://original.antiwar.com/mcgovern/2023/03/19/iraq-20-years-the-uses-and-abuses-of-national-intelligence-estimates/
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