It’s amusing to watch the developing Bremer vs. The Neocons war with Anonymous’ words in mind:
Powell’s early 2005 departure is the subject of intense jockeying among the neocons. A Perle neocon protégé, Michael Rubin, has been given the task of destroying the only competition — L. Paul “Jerry” Bremer, the former Iraq Coalition Provisional Authority chief, not a neocon insider and the favorite of traditional Republican conservatives. The neocon plan is to make Bremer the scapegoat: It was not bad neocon policy, it was bad Bremer decisions that has led to the fiasco in Iraq. Rubin was sent to Baghdad to be Wolfowitz’s man inside the CPA. Bremer dissed Rubin as a lightweight. Rubin tried to push neocon policy inside the CPA — what he, Perle and Ahmed Chalabi had pushed from the American Enterprise Institute — restoring the Hashemite monarchy in Iraq by placing Jordan’s Crown Prince Hassan on the throne. Bremer would have none of it. Rubin is now tasked by Perle and Wolfowitz to trash Bremer — which he is dutifully doing in print and media appearances arranged by neocon handler, lecture agent and media booker Eleana Benador. They intend to close the Foggy Bottom door to any aspirations Bremer, a former Foreign Service officer and Kissinger protégé, might have to take over from Powell.
[…]
But Bush the Crusader is off to a rocky start in Iraq. The ongoing meltdown is awakening Americans to the reality of the neocon agenda. But is it too late? Neocons are not dissuaded by the problems in Iraq; on the contrary, they are arguing that the problem is “Bremerism” — the U.S. has not gone far enough. In their view, we need to take out the Palestinians, Syria and Iran now.
Sure enough, if you go to the Benador site and look at Rubin’s archives, you find titles like BREMER’S LEGACY A RECIPE FOR INSTABILITY. Apparently Bremer is fighting back, with an accusation that there were too few post-invasion troops to control the rampant looting that occurred. Atrios has checked out some of the rotten tomatoes hurled at Bremer by neocons since Bremer’s statement.
I like watching this food fight because I can root for both sides to lose.
UPDATE: Another neocon chimes in, right on cue:
BREMER [Michael Ledeen]
I see where Jerry Bremer is beating up on the Pentagon for the “sin” of not having enough troops for Viceroy Bremer to deploy where and when he wished. No big surprise there; he’s a State Dept guy, after all. But somebody might think to point out that he was a driving force behind the catastrophic decision to call off the Marines just as they were on the verge of smashing the terrorist enclave in Fallujah. And that wasn’t because we lacked troops. It was because we lacked will. He was afraid the Sunnis on the Governing Council were going to resign, and that would make him look bad…so let’s keep proper perspective on who’s responsible for what in Iraq, ok?
Emphasis mine.