WASHINGTON (IPS) - In a move that has surprised many foreign policy analysts here, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has appointed a prominent neo-conservative hawk and leading champion of the Iraq war to the post of State Department Counselor.
Eliot A. Cohen, who teaches military history at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) here and has also served on the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board (DPB) since 2001, will take up the position next month that was left vacant late last year by Rice's long-time confidant and "realist" thinker, Philip Zelikow.
"After defeating the Taliban, Cohen argued, Washington should not only 'finish off' Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, whom he accused of having 'helped al-Qaeda', but also seek to overthrow 'the mullahs' in Iran whose replacement by a 'moderate or secular government would be no less important a victory in this war than the annihilation of [Osama] bin Laden'." -Source Watch
Anyone who was that wrong on Iraq should be in jail, not government.
And, 'overthrowing the mullahs' in Iran was more important than avenging 9/11?
No wonder they turned downed Iran's offer to help us against al-Qaeda back 2003.
This is another example of gross incompetence from this administration.
