Scott McClellan joins a long list of disillusioned Bush administration top officials, senior advisers, and confidants that have decided to tell it all, to “come clean.”
Of course, there will be a torrent of Bush White House, and Bush sympathizers’, attacks on McClellan’s character and credibility–as have been in the past on those who have dared to tell the truth.
They will attack him for saying in his book what most Americans already knew: that his boss misled our nation into an unnecessary war in Iraq; that the decision to invade Iraq was a “serious strategic blunder” ; that top White House officials deceived him and the American people about the administration’s involvement in the leaking of the identity of C.I.A operative, Valerie Plame; etc., etc. But most of all they will attack him for saying that the Bush White House consciously made “a decision to turn away from candor and honesty when those qualities were most needed.”
Of course, there will be many who will applaud McClellan for finally admitting to his complicity in one of the biggest failures of government truth, leadership and competence our country has ever experienced. They will use the adage “better late than never.”
And, of course, Scott McClellan will go on to make millions from his confessions and from his newly acquired fame–or infamy.
But I, for one, will not join the chorus of applause. I, for one, will not use the maxim better late than never. Because there is no “better late than never” when it comes to the damage done to our nation’s reputation, to our freedoms, and–most importantly–when it comes to the over 4,000 fallen American heroes in Iraq. Scott McClellan, along with Messrs. Powell, Tenet, and so many others had their chance, and blew it.
The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.