It's just so, so... Brazen...

I hate to drone on about this story (what is it, my fifth post about the topic today?), but it's much too big and important to ignore any facet of. Here's some quotes from Bush administration officials about BangFuckBoomGate™ in my daily paper.

At one point McClellan point out that "there were a number of priorities at the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom."

Karl Rove ... also contended that The [New York] Times has chosen to run the article at the end of the campaign, though he argued that the explosives probably disappeared about 18 months ago.

...Dan Bartlett, the White House communications director, said the White House had decided "to get all the facts and find out exactly what happened in this case, and then whether there are other cases." He went on to say, "So doing it piecemeal -- I don't think that would have been the responsible thing." He said that so far, no other large-scale cases of looting of explosives had been found.

"There were a number of priorities..."

"I don't think that would have been the responsible thing..."

Rove practically all but admits that the Bush administration knew about this 18 months before the Times ran their article...

It's. Just. So. Brazen. After reading quotes like this, one has to wonder if anybody in the Bush administration even cares that 380 tons of explosives were stolen, in a crime which they could have prevented, and are now bring used to kill US soldiers and Iraqi civilians. It's like they don't give a damn about whose hands this material ends up in. It's like the thought of Iran taking part in the looting or purchasing this material on the black market had never crossed their minds. It's like they merely think of this story as a political annoyance during an election year, something to be swept under the rug before it seriously harms the president's chances of being reelected. No biggie, it's only 380 tons of explosives missing.

The article included another quote I'd like to mention which doesn't refer to BangFuckBoomGate™. It's an attack on Kerry from Bush:

"Senator Kerry has turned his back on 'Pay any price and bear any burden,'" Mr. Bush charged, "and he has replaced those commitments with 'wait and see' and 'cut and run.'"

This struck me as the words of a man who really doesn't get it. Praising the president who started the Vietnam War for harboring the "Pay any price and bear any burden" attitude scares me, because this is the same man who wants to control our Armed Forces for the next four years. With Bush's praise for JFK, he all but outright admits that he doesn't think the Vietnam War was a mistake. What's worse is his ignorance of history, because he should well know that Kennedy's "'Pay any price and bear any burden" attitude only led to cutting and running a decade later.

Bush just doesn't get it. In fact, I don't think he even cares. Should it come as any surprise that a man of this character would surround himself with likeminded peers?

[Related post: "Stupidity on parade"]