ChezLark

This Financial Times article reports on the White House’s ongoing isolation from the potentially unpleasant reality beyond its gates:

One counterinsurgency expert said Donald Rumsfeld, defence secretary, had a “brutally accurate” picture of the situation and the potential dangers.

But a member of an influential neoconservative policy group said that such warnings “stop well short of the president”.

He said Mr Rumsfeld, criticised for the conduct of the war, had an interest in hiding the true picture from the president.

According to Chas Freeman, former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia and head of the independent Middle East Policy Council, Mr Bush recently asked Mr Powell for his view on the progress of the war. “We’re losing,” Mr Powell was quoted as saying. Mr Freeman said Mr Bush then asked the secretary of state to leave.

[..]

Analysts are concerned that with the departure of Mr Powell and his replacement by Condoleezza Rice, the president’s loyal national security adviser, the White House will be further shielded from dissent.