Sunday, April 06, 2008

Douglas Feith: "Pre-emptive self-defense"

60 Minutes interviewed Douglas Feith, who is promoting his new book. Feith was one of the most energetic Bush administration advocates of war. Watching him I could not help pondering the mediocrity of a administration in which Mr. Feith was able to play such a consequential role.

Feith was a junior NSC staffer in the Reagan administration. In 1982, he was fired by Judge William P. Clark, the president's National Security advisor. The circumstances of his dismissal were never made fully explicit. Some writers have claimed that Clark canned Feith because of inappropriate contacts with the Israeli embassy in Washington, but I don't think Clark ever spoke publicly of the episode. If any readers have seen a discussion of the incident, please post it in a comment.

An earlier post about Douglas Feit links to a WaPo story about his new book.

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