James Fallows ('Blind into Baghdad') on w/Tavis Smiley tonight - WOW!

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Leftcoast alert.

In essence, Fallows said that Dems don't need an exit plan. Cheney did it by saying that they'd "do it the same all over again." If you like Iraq and the handling of it, vote Republicon. If you've got some other ideas, the GOP ain't for you.

Enjoy.

Here's a sample of the reviews at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Blind-Into-Baghdad-Americas-Vintage/dp/0307277968/sr=8-1/qid=1158726308/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-4429556-0687304?ie=UTF8&s=books

From Publishers Weekly

Fallows, national correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly, compiles in this slim volume a series of five articles he wrote for that magazine between 2002 and 2005, which collectively won a National Magazine Award. Along with an original introduction and afterword, the essays systematically chronicle the mendacity, insularity and incompetence of the Bush administration while developing and implementing its Iraq policy. Relying heavily on inside sources and declassified documents, Fallows (National Defense) shows that, before the war, the government had ample intelligence to forestall many of the disastrous consequences of the occupation, but Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and others ordered their subordinates to ignore the reports. "Bush's Lost Year" addresses a topic that has received little attention: the effects of the buildup in Iraq on the campaign in Afghanistan and the broader war on terror. "Why Iraq Has No Army" studies one decision that has hampered the war effort ever since. For avid news readers, little will be new, though "Will Iran Be Next?"—an account of a high-level discussion convened by the Atlantic Monthly—may pique more interest. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“No one was more prescient than James Fallows about the war in Iraq and what it would entail.”
–Andrew Sullivan

“The Iraq imbroglio has produced some amazing and, for war supporters, painful essays. . . . Blind Into Baghdad . . . show(s) that most of what happened in postwar Iraq was predicted prewar by government analysts. It's just that their reports were suppressed or ignored by the people making the decisions.”
–David Brooks, The New York Times

[Bozita]

1. kick for MT and PT folks

[Bozita]

2. last call for leftcoasters