Count me in agreement with commenters who’ve made the point that this is not “incompetence” any more than the occupation of Iraq is. That is, the incompetence (self-delusion, counterproductiveness, etc.) is not the biggest part of what’s outrageous about the policy.

Not sure I buy Abrams’ and Wurmser’s distancing themselves from the policy now, either; if they want to pretend they opposed it, it’s because it’s another huge, stinking failure.

Tony Karon, the Rootless Cosmopolitan, has had the most accurate analysis of this all along, and his posts from last summer, immediately after the defeat of Dahlan’s attempted coup, are worth re-reading.

191. The Palestinian civil war. January 2006 the populist and rejectionist Hamas (one of the Islamist organizations that Israel had supported in the past as a counterweight to Fatah) wins Parliamentary elections pushing out of government a corrupt but well entrenched Fatah. Clashes between Fatah and Hamas militants begin almost immediately. Despite Bush’s oft stated support of democracy in the Middle East, the US organizes a boycott of Hamas. The US and the Europeans cut off funds to the Palestinian Authority (PA). Israel holds back tax receipts. International banking transactions are blocked preventing aid from other countries. The result is a sharp increase in unemployment, poverty, and radicalism in the Territories, especially Gaza where Hamas is strongest. At the same time, the background pattern of Israeli and Palestinian attacks and counter-attacks continues. In the deepening humanitarian and political crisis, Western governments led by the US seek to do end runs around Hamas funneling aid directly to the Palestinian people bypassing the PA and backing the Fatah Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as an alternative to Hamas. In addition to political support, the US supplies Fatah security forces with weapons. A national unity government is finally cobbled together in February 2007 but doesn’t last. In May, 500 Fatah fighters enter Gaza from Egypt with Israeli approval and Bush okays $40 million to train 4,000 troops directly under Abbas’ control. Violence flares in June 2007 and greatly outnumbered and outgunned Fatah fighters are kicked out of Gaza. On June 14, 2007, Abbas dissolves the “national unity” government. A few days later on June 16, Fatah forces effectively expel Hamas from the West Bank. Instead of accepting the results of a democratic election and engaging with its opponents, the Bush Administration fomented a civil war. As has happened so many times before, it didn’t do its homework or the math, and the consequences were once again not those it expected. The Palestinians are even weaker and more divided. Gaza has real potential to become a full blown humanitarian crisis. The situation is more dangerous and peace even further away.

The material on Hagee and his Christian Zionists is getting reported much as M&W wrote it, so at least some in the MSM have dipped in and read.

But two excellent resources if you have time/interest are:
Kevin Phillips: American Theocracy
Craig Unger: Fall of the House of Bush

Both excellent, and both dive into the historical roots, and the implications, of the ‘Rapture Believers’.
Not a belief system that, IMHO, has any merit when it comes to driving foreign policy.

——
OT, but:
(And yeah, kids with Downs can be really sweet spirits
(And I hope you are aware of the high incidence of children with Downs Syndrome who have been born to VietNam Vets who were exposed to Agent Orange? I also happen to know a Vietnamese family with a very sweet son seriously affected with Downs; both parents are originally from an area deforested by Agent Orange. Don’t know whether there are any links between VietNam and your 16 year old, but I agree that kids with Downs can be really good natured. FWIW.)

Azzaman, March 4, 2008

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, has made a surprise visit to the Sunni city of Huwaija and met former army officers, senior Iraqi police officer said.

Colonel Fattah Abdullah said the admiral spent two hours in the city and held further meetings with its chief administrator and tribal leaders who have raised militias to support U.S. effort against al-Qaeda.

Huwaija once supplied the former Iraqi army with huge numbers of commissioned and non-commissioned officers. Many of them held influential posts in the Republican Guards, Saddam Hussein’s elite force.

Abdullah gave no details on content of the discussions Mullen had with the officers but the U.S. military in Iraq is giving growing attention to Sunnis who led the insurgency in the country….

http://www.azzaman.com/english…..fname=news2008-03-04kurd.htm