Because I get the feeling that the folks at the New York Times think they’re in charge.
That publication has published yet another classified document, this one written by National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and detailing a lack of confidence in Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki.
At least, that’s the Times’ characterization of the memo. A full reading of the document (text available here) leaves one with the impression that the memo is more constructive criticism than anything else, which means this wouldn’t be the first time the Times has mischaracterized the contents of a classified government document for the public.
Anyway, it now appears as though the release of this document has caused the President to delay a meeting with Prime Minister al-Maliki in Jordan today:
AMMAN, Jordan - President Bush’s high-profile meeting with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Wednesday was canceled in a stunning turn of events after disclosure of U.S. doubts about the Iraqi leader’s capabilities and a political boycott in Baghdad protesting his attendance.
Instead of two days of talks, Bush and al-Maliki will have breakfast and a single meeting followed by a news conference on Thursday morning, the White House said.
The abrupt cancellation was an almost unheard-of development in the high-level diplomatic circles of a U.S. president, a king and a prime minister. There was confusion — and conflicting explanations — about what happened.
This makes me angry.
Regardless of your opinion about the President - love him, hate him or ambivalent towards him - there is no arguing with the fact that he has been elected to set our foreign policy. He is over in the middle east right now trying to advance our foreign policy and fix some of the problems in the middle east, and here at home the New York Times is printing illegally leaked memos and mischaracterizing their content in a blatant attempt to undermine him.
That’s the only way to look at this. We have a partisan American news outlet actively seeking to undermine the foreign policy moves of a President elected by the people. They’ve disrupted a high-level meeting, undermined our relationship with an important figure in Iraq and made our President look like a fool in a region where America can hardly afford to look foolish.
It’s disgusting, and it needs to stop. I wouldn’t care if it was Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter over in Jordan right now, the Times had no business publishing that memo.
Somebody needs to go to jail for this, but sadly nothing will probably happen. There might be some noises about an investigation, but the media will refuse to cover it (because the only leak investigations they like are the ones that hurt Bush/Republicans, see: Valerie Plame) and soon everyone but the few political pundits and junkies who follow this stuff religiously will have forgotten about it.