And You Wonder Why The War In Iraq Is Going Badly

George Will writes today of an episode that is mentioned in the new Bob Woodward book State of Denial. I think this passage more than ably demonstrates the total level of incompetence on the part of the administration in prosecuting the war. From the Post:

While leading the hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq in the summer of 2003, David Kay received a phone call from "Scooter" Libby, Dick Cheney's chief of staff, who wanted a particular place searched: "The vice president wants to know if you've looked at this area. We have indications -- and here are the geocoordinates -- that something's buried there." Kay and his experts located the area on the map. It was in the middle of Lebanon.

This story from Bob Woodward's "State of Denial" would be hilarious were it not about war. The vignette is dismaying because it seems symptomatic of a blinkering monomania that may have prevented obsessed persons from facing facts.

Damn that Saddam Hussein and his geocoordinate scrambling machine!