Meghan O'Sullivan enthroned at Harvard

Posted By Thomas E. Ricks Wednesday, September 2, 2009 - 11:14 AM Share

Ms. O'Sullivan, who is a nice person but didn't distinguish herself in her role in the Iraq War, when she was in the Bush White House, has landed a chair professorship at Harvard's Kennedy School. It is named for Jeane Kirkpatrick, but I will think of it as "the Bundy chair," in honor of her true intellectual predecessor.

wikicommons

EXPLORE:BUSH ADMINISTRATION, IRAQ, POLITICS, U.S. FOREIGN POLICY
 

JJH722

11:21 AM ET

September 2, 2009

rusk

Hah. Harvard has really lowered its standards. My dad went to UGA and took a class on international law from Dean Rusk, who he always reminds me was labeled "in exile from Harvard at the University of Georgia."

 

BILL KELLER

3:57 PM ET

September 2, 2009

It is a good place to bring perspective and ponder...

Given the amount of life invested in Washington and in harms way in Iraq, it is an earned chair to be given to Dr. O'Sullivan. Outside of Dave Petraeus and some very good journalists can think of no others. Maybe in this aftermath of hubris deflation and public trust betrayal, Dr. O'Sullivan will be in the position of Clauswitz or even the fictional hobbit to offer a thought formed in the crucible. It is a hope that she will having been freed by this chair no longer have the pressure to deteriorate into an apologist for past years lost. Best wishes for Meghan.

 

CHARLIEFORD

10:20 PM ET

September 2, 2009

Ouch.

I remember McGeorge. I was just a kid, but back in the day he was just a notch above Rostow, as I recall. And that's a heck of a low bar.

 

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military for the Washington Post from 2000 through 2008.

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