Former Chief of Staff to Colin Powell on Cheney

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The Financial Times has an article which sheds some light in the workings of Cheney and Rumsfeld in the buildup to the Iraq war. Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff to Mr Powell until last January, comes clean in an expose of this relationship and the implications for America. Among Wilkerson's pronoucements:

■ The detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere was “a concrete example” of the decision-making problem, with the president and other top officials in effect giving the green light to soldiers to abuse detainees. “You don't have this kind of pervasive attitude out there unless you've condoned it.”

■ Condoleezza Rice, the former national security adviser and now secretary of state, was “part of the problem”. Instead of ensuring that Mr Bush received the best possible advice, “she would side with the president to build her intimacy with the president”.

■ The military, particularly the army and marine corps, is overstretched and demoralised. Officers, Mr Wilkerson claimed, “start voting with their feet, as they did in Vietnam. . . and all of a sudden your military begins to unravel”.

Read the entire article here