OBL + GWB Sittin' in a Tree
K-i-s-s-i-n-g:
"For the United States, the world is now, as a result of the Iraq war, a more dangerous place. At the end of 2002, what is sometimes tagged "Al Qaeda Central" in Afghanistan had been virtually destroyed, and there was no Al Qaeda in Iraq. In 2007, there is an Al Qaeda in Iraq, parts of the old Al Qaeda are creeping back into Afghanistan and there are Al Qaeda emulators spawning elsewhere, notably in Europe.
Osama bin Laden's plan was to get the U.S. to overreact and overreach itself. With the invasion of Iraq, Bush fell slap-bang into that trap. The U.S. government's own latest National Intelligence Estimate, released this week, suggests that Al Qaeda in Iraq is now among the most significant threats to the security of the American homeland."
Timothy Garton, in the L.A. Times.
W is the best de facto ally al Qaeda ever had. He gave the "dead or alive" speech, then unleashed just enough force to make OBL's escape look spectacular to credulous observers. Then he re-directed our efforts against OBL's worst local enemy, eliminating that enemy, degrading our forces, and providing a huge recruiting and training opportunity for al Qaeda.
It really is fairly difficult to imagine a worse president, or one who would have handled this situation more ineptly.
K-i-s-s-i-n-g:
"For the United States, the world is now, as a result of the Iraq war, a more dangerous place. At the end of 2002, what is sometimes tagged "Al Qaeda Central" in Afghanistan had been virtually destroyed, and there was no Al Qaeda in Iraq. In 2007, there is an Al Qaeda in Iraq, parts of the old Al Qaeda are creeping back into Afghanistan and there are Al Qaeda emulators spawning elsewhere, notably in Europe.
Osama bin Laden's plan was to get the U.S. to overreact and overreach itself. With the invasion of Iraq, Bush fell slap-bang into that trap. The U.S. government's own latest National Intelligence Estimate, released this week, suggests that Al Qaeda in Iraq is now among the most significant threats to the security of the American homeland."
Timothy Garton, in the L.A. Times.
W is the best de facto ally al Qaeda ever had. He gave the "dead or alive" speech, then unleashed just enough force to make OBL's escape look spectacular to credulous observers. Then he re-directed our efforts against OBL's worst local enemy, eliminating that enemy, degrading our forces, and providing a huge recruiting and training opportunity for al Qaeda.
It really is fairly difficult to imagine a worse president, or one who would have handled this situation more ineptly.
posted by Winston Smith at
11:01 AM
1 Comments:
The Bushist and neocon target was always Iraq. Their goal was always permanent bases in the Middle East but outside of Saudi Arabia. (Relocating our bases outside of bin Laden's oyster was actually a rational desire among PNAC wishful thinking.) Iraq has the perfect location, had it only been empty of those pesky and fractious Iraqis.
The purpose of invading Iraq was not to spread democracy - that was pure marketing - or to topple Saddam Hussein - beneficial ceteris paribus but also a marketing feature. The true purpose was the projection of American power into this region so essential to our economic security without any consideration of change in our policy with respect to Israel.
I still have trouble understanding why the Bushists didn't fear the voters enough to make sure they got bin Laden anyway. It would have made their GWOT cover story more credible.
I guess they thought they could manipulate opinion however they needed to. That worked for a while, too.
(Come see my new digs at lovable liberal.)
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