This morning, George W. Bush presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom to retired General Tommy Franks, who oversaw combat in Afghanistan and the initial invasion of Iraq, former CIA Director George Tenet and former Iraq administrator L. Paul Bremer. Franks, I can almost see. Things did go well, at least for a time in Afghanistan…but he was a leading advocate of the position, which I don't think anyone now thinks was wise, that we didn't need more boots on the ground in Iraq. Still, I can't even give half-credit to Tenet or Bremer, and I think even a lot of Bush supporters would love to blame them for all the screw-ups and failures. The trouble is that this administration's policy is to never admit there even have been screw-ups or failures.
This is more of that "I meant to do that" mentality. We don't admit when things go wrong. We insist they went so right, the people responsible are deserving of medals. It keeps the denial going…and in this case, it may prevent either Tenet or Bremer from writing a book that the Bush administration won't like.