posted April 6, 2003 at 10:11 PM MDT
Go ahead, Rummy! Give Powell hell! Call him a left-leaning muddle-brained incoherent limp-wristed pansy!!
Clash of the Administration Titans [time.com] - "There are moments in history when ideology stops being a parlor game for academics and actually shapes the future of the world. As American troops mass outside Baghdad, a battle of ideas is taking place inside Washington's corridors of power that could fashion a new Middle East.
At the core of the conflict are two different ways of looking at the world. Rumsfeld and his team of neoconservative civilians at the Pentagon favor an activist and often unilateralist approach to advancing America's interests abroad. Powell's camp sees the world through a prism of interlocking interests that need to be protected by alliances and stability. The fight between internationalists and unilateralists has gone on in the Republican Party for a generation. What's different this time is that Rummy and Powell are engaging in it at the very moment when the principles of U.S. foreign policy are up for grabs.
Here's a frightening fact: Rumsfeld was ambassador to NATO for good-old Tricky Dick "I am not a crook" Nixon!