Then a dog began to howl somewhere in a farmhouse far down the road, a long, agonized wailing, as if from fear. The sound was taken up by another dog, and then another and another, till, borne on the wind which now sighed softly through the Pass, a wild howling began, which seemed to come from all over the country, as far as the imagination could grasp it through the gloom of the night.

Bram Stoker — Dracula

From an macabre tale by Will Bunch in todays Editor and Publisher:

… Bill Keller has his own “entanglement” problem. Keller’s entanglement was with Paul Wolfowitz, the then-deputy defense secretary and so-called “chief architect” of the 2003 Iraq invasion.

Keller’s apparently chummy relationship with Wolfowitz explains a lot. It certainly explains the conv[o]luted pieces that Keller — who was both a columnist and author of magazine pieces for the Times in 2002 and 2003, before he was called in to replace the ousted Howell Raines — wrote offering his support for the military action before it was launched. He called himself a reluctant “hawk” on the war at that time.

How deeply was Bill Keller in the sway of Wolfowitz & Co.? Read this small piece of Keller’s 8,139-word profile of the assistant defense secretary from Sept. 22, 2002, called — believe it or not — “The Sunshine Warrior” (via Nexis):

“In Washington, some people go straight to caricature, without getting much chance to be interesting or complicated. Paul Wolfowitz, who is interesting and complicated, has been cast since Sept. 11 in the role of zealot… The shorthand version of Paul Wolfowitz, however, is inadequate in important ways. It completely misses his style, which relies on patient logic and respectful, soft-spoken engagement rather than on fire-breathing conviction.”

Keller described three “important” things that Wolfowitz “brings to the table,” including “something of a reputation as a man who sees trouble coming before others do, his long anxiety about Iraq being one example.” Another “striking thing” about Wolfowitz: “an optimism about America’s ability to build a better world. He has an almost missionary sense of America”s role. In the current case, that means a vision of an Iraq not merely purged of cataclysmic weaponry, not merely a threat disarmed, but an Iraq that becomes a democratic cornerstone of an altogether new Middle East.”

Posted by Buck Batard at November 10, 2005 04:05 PM

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