Maybe Wilson isn't actually a rogue, but somehow doing Bush's bidding?
Maybe Wilson's Machiavellian target wasn't Bush, but Kaddafi. Using Lexis-Nexis, I read old reports on Saddam buying uranium in Africa - Libya was acting as intermediary between Niger and Saddam in the 1980s and early 1990's.
The timing works. Khaddafi recently (August) started toeing the line vis-a-vis the Lockerbie incident, AFTER Wilson's silly tirades (June/July), and the UN sanctions against Libya were lifted in September.
Maybe Bush decided to "pretend" that Libya was being good, nudge-nudge-wink-wink, because it's better to have Khaddafi on "our side" where we can watch him, under the principle of keeping your friends close and your enemies closer.
Or maybe it's more Machiavellian than that, even. Maybe it was Blair and/or British intelligence.
After all, in the State of the Union address (SOTU, is the kewl acronym these days), Bush carefully attributed the report that Saddam was attempting to buy uranium in Africa to British intelligence. Bush didn't mention Niger by name, is my recollection.
But I can't think of any reason for Bush to try to screw Blair.
It really is a curious series of events.
At any rate, my perception of Bush is that he'd rather be effective than have the world think he's smart, so having Wilson kick sand in his eyes probably doesn't bother him in the least, as long as something is gettng done. |
