Do you believe in fairy tales David?

David Broder demonstrates his colossal naivete:

The fact is that Bush has broken a lot of china even before the first shot has been fired. In retrospect, we can see that the mere announcement of the preemption doctrine posed serious challenges to the United Nations view of international law and to the comity of the NATO alliance, which rests on a mutual readiness to respond to aggression, not to launch attacks. What we know is that the imminent prospect of preemptive war with Iraq has damaged U.S. relations with much of the world -- opening rifts with major trading partners such as France and Germany, with Russia and China, and even with neighboring Canada and Mexico. The aftereffects in the Middle East and throughout the Muslim world cannot be gauged. This is not what Bush sought or anticipated -- any more than he anticipated, when he launched his course of large-scale tax cuts, the giant deficits that now loom for the United States, threatening the economy and vital domestic programs. The members of Congress who so willingly endorsed his Iraq policy last autumn will be debating his budget this week. It behooves them to consider the consequences carefully this time.

Bush may not have explicitly set out to destroy the UN order the U.S. budget. But the fact that his course of action might produce that result was of no consequence to him and indeed, may be considered by him to be a net positive. That Broder actually thinks this was unplanned just demonstrates that he really believes that Bush has America's best interest at heart. He wants so much to believe that the President is always the good guy that he is willing to overlook the mounds of evidence that suggest otherwise. Unfortunately, Broder is the dean of the Washington press corps. Is it any wonder so many of them suffer from the same delusion? (aside: I suppose we ought to be grateful that Mr. Broder is at least entertaining the idea that Bush is incompetent. It doesn't bring much comfort to me however.)