Wonk Coup

(Image from Democracy Cell Project )

Just about everything wrong with Guy Raz' report yesterday from the pro-war, far right American Enterprise Institute (AEI), I've already noted about a previous Raz report from the AEI.

Yesterday on ATC Raz opens with distracting banalities about the "roast beef wraps and chocolate chip cookie bars" at the AEI presentation that promotes sending thousands more US troops to Iraq. Keep in mind that this plan will undoubtedly kill tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of more Iraqis and thousands more US troops, but Raz describes this occasion as "Washington’s version of an LA movie premier…"

Raz has this to say: "AEI isn’t just another Washington wonk factory, it’s become – and I don’t say this lightly – a kind of unofficial policy shop of the Bush White House." He also should have said that AEI is a favorite "go-to" think tank of NPR News. Raz does mention that a MoveOn.org protest was occurring and lets its director say, "Washington policy makers who listen to AEI are a heroin addict going back to the needle.” Raz then explains this by stating, "The needle he’s talking about here is the idea that Iraq can be won." That's not exactly right, I think he's using the metaphor to characterize the fact that policy makers (and NPR too) keep going back to AEI even though their theories and policies on Iraq and the Middle East have been proven to be completely wrong and morally bankrupt.

The story that NPR should be covering is the stunning truth that a small group of right-wing extremists housed at the AEI think tank is running the foreign policy of the US government in opposition to both the expressed and polled will of the populace. Now that would be a story.