Shocker: Anti-Interventionist, Fighting-Terrorists-Only-Makes-More-of-Them Ex-CIA Official Michael Scheuer No Longer A Go-To Guy For War Analysis

Michael Scheuer was a former director of the CIA's anti-bin-Ladin unit. He wrote a book called Imperial Hubris in 2004, sharply critical of the Bush Administration's interventionist policy (and making the Ron Paul-type case that we need to abandon Israel). Because he hadn't cleared that book per the CIA's rules, he got fired. Correction: No he didn't. I misremembered. He did in fact get the book cleared. He quit the agency soon after publishing the book.

Well, if you remember, the media couldn't get enough of Scheuer's basic schtick in 2004-2008. Every dollop of wisdom he offered -- that we have no business fighting in Muslim countries, that we're always blundering about making new enemies and minting fresh terrorists -- was eaten up by a media consumed with War on Bush fever.

Well, it's now after January 2009 and the world has changed, and by "world" I mean "president."

And while Scheuer is saying the exact same things he said from 2004-2008, now the media is arguing with him.

Because now Obama is intervening in a "War of Choice" in a Muslim country. And that's... different. Because it's Obama.

posted by Ace at 11:41 AM

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