Paul Krugman: The Price of Fantasy

Paul Krugman: The Price of Fantasy: "Paul Krugman reports on how The Decider decides: The Price of Fantasy, by Paul Krugman, Neoconservatives, Commentary, NY Times: Today we call them neoconservatives, but when the first George Bush was president, those who believed that America could remake the world to its liking with a series of splendid little wars — people like Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld — were known within the administration as “the crazies.” Grown-ups in both parties rejected their vision as a dangerous fantasy. But in 2000 the Supreme Court delivered the White House to a man who, although he may be 60, doesn’t act like a grown-up. The second President Bush obviously confuses swagger with strength, and prefers tough talkers like the crazies to people who actually think things through. He got the chance to implement the crazies’ vision after 9/11, ... And the result is the bloody mess we’re now in. ... As I wrote back in January 2003, ... the “Bush doctrine” of preventive war was"