I will not be reading Karl Rove’s upcoming blockbuster with the self-aggrandizing title, “Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight.” However, copies have been released to the press and there are enough previews of the book to satisfy my curiosity about what this man, affectionately called “turd blossom,” is trying to peddle.
Furthermore, after watching this man—this brain—for eight years directly manipulate the President of the United States and, indirectly, the American people, I have heard and seen more than enough.
As I said, there are many previews floating around, most notably in the New York Times.
Here are a couple of excerpts:
For the most part, his book, “Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight,” to be published by Threshold Editions on Tuesday, is an unapologetic defense of Mr. Bush and his presidency, and takes aim at Democrats, the news media and disloyal Republicans for what he describes as hypocrisy, deceit and vanity.
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In offering his take on history, Mr. Rove ruminates on what would have happened had Mr. Bush known the truth about the absent unconventional weapons, known as weapons of mass destruction, or W.M.D., in Iraq. While the opportunity to bring democracy to the Middle East as a bulwark against Islamic extremism “justified the decision to remove Saddam Hussein,” Mr. Rove says the suspected weapons were the primary justification for war.
“Would the Iraq War have occurred without W.M.D.? I doubt it,” he writes. “Congress was very unlikely to have supported the use-of-force resolution without the W.M.D. threat. The Bush administration itself would probably have sought other ways to constrain Saddam, bring about regime change, and deal with Iraq’s horrendous human rights violations.”
From the reviews, it appears that Mr. Rove is more concerned about having offered a “weak response” to accusations that his hero “lied us into a war” than about the Bush administration’s incompetence, exaggerations, misrepresentations and, yes, the lies themselves that were used to justify the invasion and occupation of Iraq.
As to the weapons of mass destruction allegedly possessed by Iraq, and perhaps the primary reason to take our country to war, Rove—unlike some neocons—does admit that Iraq did not have them and finally tells us so.
Mr. Rove, now you tell us. After you, along with your Vice-President and others, did everything in your power—including abusing such power—to lead Congress and the American people to believe that there was such a “real and imminent” threat. Efforts that included leaking the identity of a C.I.A. operative, Valerie Plame, and besmirching the reputation of her husband, Joseph Wilson.
“Courage and Consequence”?
Mr. Rove, there is nothing courageous about your instrumental role in taking our country to war under false pretenses; there is nothing courageous about your role in committing hundreds of thousands of our troops to a war that would have never occurred if you and those you advised had done due diligence.
Finally, Mr. Rove, the real consequence of your “courage” is the loss of over 4,000 brave American troops and the horrific injuries sustained by tens of thousands servicemen and women.
The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.