Shorter Ivan Eland

Ivan Eland of the Independent Institute::

For an administration that accuses critics of the Iraq war of being “unpatriotic,” the cynical exposure of a U.S. covert intelligence officer by administration officials is the pinnacle of hypocrisy. * * *

The conventional wisdom is that President Bush never fires anyone. That is not true. Unfortunately, he usually fires truth tellers that stray from official White House spin—for example, Gen. Eric Shinseki, the Chief of Staff of the Army, for saying that hundreds of thousands of troops would be needed to occupy Iraq, and Larry Lindsey, the president’s chief economist, for his estimate that the war in Iraq would cost $200 billion. This time the president should fire some of the liars who have been loyal to the White House but disloyal to the nation.