End of Empire (washingtonpost.com)
The photographs of grinning goons in uniform taking pleasure in the sexual humiliation of Arab captives have inflicted “a world of hurt” on America’s reputation abroad, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in a gentle scolding of Rumsfeld. The excuses of “just following orders” from guards or explanations that “the system worked” from the Pentagon’s tone-deaf leadership fell as flat on the Hill as they have with foreign audiences.
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Bureaucracies tip into death spirals at moments such as these. They feel compelled to defend themselves and the versions of reality they have put forward before, when they should be adjusting their practices and expectations as well as their stories. “We can’t get inside the news cycle,” one frustrated administration official lamented last week. “We have a massive perception-management problem.”