Thank God Our Leaders Are Completely Different From Saddam Hussein

Previous installments in this long-running series can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Air America's website quotes this from the Nelson Report (via Atrios):

There is rising concern amongst senior officials that President Bush does not grasp the increasingly grim reality of the security situation in Iraq because he refuses to listen to that type of information. Our sources say that attempts to brief Bush on various grim realities have been personally rebuffed by the President, who actually says that he does not want to hear “bad news.”

Rather, Bush makes clear that all he wants are progress reports... Our sources are firm in that they conclude this “good news only” directive comes from Bush himself... the information/intelligence vacuum at the highest levels of the White House increasingly frightens those officials interested in objective assessment, and not just selling a political message.

Now, compare that to the final CIA WMD report about Saddam Hussein's regime:

WEAVING A CULTURE OF LIES

The growth of a culture of lying to superiors hurt policymaking... Lack of structural checks and balances allowed false information to affect Iraqi decision making with disastrous effects...

Key commanders overstated their combat readiness and willingness to fight... [officers] later admitted misleading Saddam about military readiness...

[Presidential Secretary] ‘Abd said key Regime members “habitually” concealed from Saddam unpleasant realities of Iraq’s industrial and military capabilities and of public opinion. Fear of the loss of position motivated this deception, which continued until the final days of the Regime.

Asked how Saddam treated people who brought him bad news, ‘Ali Hasan Al Majid replied, “I don’t know.” ISG assesses that ‘Ali Hasan Al Majid has never known any instance of anybody bringing bad news to Saddam.

The WMD report also says "More conscientious members of the Regime sought to work around sycophantic or timid superiors by cultivating alternative, direct lines of communication to Saddam."

Compare that, to this:

The CIA findings were leaked, wrote the Inquirer's John S. Landay, because "senior policymakers" have become frustrated by their inability "to provide Bush with more somber analyses of the situation in Iraq than the optimistic views presented by Vice President Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, and other hard-liners."

Yes indeedy-do. Thank God our leaders are completely different from Saddam Hussein.