Contributors

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Happiness Is A Warm National Intelligence Assessment

Ah, summer. Take a stroll down Main Street USA and soak in the sights. Children playing baseball, convertible cars cruising down the highways, and, of course, bikini clad women with the honey in their hips swaying me into perfect bliss.

What's that I smell, though, on the grill? Could it be hamburgers? No. Could it be hot dogs? No. Is it corn on the cob? No, it is not. It is the sweet smell of vindication in the glorious form of our recent National Intelligence Assessment. The assessment, culled from the various intelligence agencies in our government (CIA, Homeland, DOD, FBI etc) basically states what I have been saying for the past five years: The Bush Administration's policies have failed to stop Al Qaeda. In particular, the administration's policy in Pakistan, a country long written about on this blog, has been so poor that Al Qaeda leadership has basically re-established itself with bases and operations, located in the largely autonomous and Federally Administrated Tribal Area (FATA) of Pakistan, fully capable of carrying out attacks on American soil. The report goes on to say that the United States is actually losing ground to extremism. In fact, "Al Qaeda has used the Iraq conflict to energize the broader Sunni extremist Community, raise resources, and to recruit and indoctrinate operatives, including for Homeland attacks."

Well, well well. That certainly puts a damper on things, doesn't it? People in President Bush's very own Executive Branch saying he has done a poor job? Ineffective? Al Qaeda is back? Wonderful...

And there are still some of you that think that our president is doing his best to protect us? That the war in Iraq is actually helping us? Good God....what in the hell is the matter with you people? Seriously, I want to have some of what you are smoking so I can be so mind numbingly retarded that life is that simple blur of an outmoded and narrow minded belief system. Remember all that talk a while back from President....."If you are a country that harbors terrorists, then you will be considered terrorists?"

Hmm..let's see here...Pakistan harbors terrorists...Saudi Arabia (15 9-11 hijackers from there) harbors terrorists....UAE (2 hijackers from there) harbors terrorists and oh, is also the new home of Haliburton...Egypt produced Mohammed Atta...Lebanon (1 hijacker from there) harbors terrorists. All are allies...all had Al Qaeda in their respective countries on 9-11-2001 and what did we do? We:

a. Did a half ass job in Afghanistan so we could

b. Do a worse ass job in Iraq, a country that had less Al Qaeda in it than Florida did in 2001.

But the best part, dear readers is this.

Fox News Story

Lovely! Let's give arms to all of these countries and give Pakistan 2 billion dollars a year (!) to "handle" the problem. More mind boggling than this is the 200 million dollars or so we have given tribal leaders in Waziristan in the hopes of winning them over. Hee hee. Sorry, I just have to stop here for a minute and laugh for a second. Bwah Ha Ha Ha !!! HEE HEE!! HOO HOOO! HO HO HO! Our government is giving money to people that are harboring the man behind the 9-11 attacks in the hopes that we win their hearts and minds? How mind-numbingly naive can our leaders be?

Apparently, their buffoonery knows no bounds because guess what else happened? The Defense Department has "lost" 194,000 AK-47 assault rifles in Iraq which now, according to Defense Secretary Robert Gates are in the hands of the people trying to KILL US!!! And they are trying to tell us that things are getting better over there.....good Lord.

Folks, help me out here, please. Is it possible to fire President Bush and Vice President Cheney for dereliction of duty? They have completely and utterly failed to protect us. They have made a bad situation worse and sadly, the only thing that is going to convince the 30 odd percent of you out there of this is another attack on our soil courtesy of the single minded baboons we have leading us.

Coming soon to a theater near you!!

My sources for this article (and for your further reading) were:

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank goodness we have model Americans like George Bush and Richard Cheney protecting our God given right to freedom. If it means plundering and completely decimating a country-who cares? As long as we are free.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, but you know what is really sad, Mark, is that the Bushies will look at this report and just shrug. They don't care. And, if there is another attack, it will be the fault of the "weak willed" people in this country who don't believe every single word that comes out the president's mouth.

Anonymous said...

truth girl is right, the president knows, the vp knows, every single person in this admin knows, americans know, the whole world knows -- that it's fake (actuality versus rhetoric) and a mirage (so-called policy "objectives") -- but they give, or (very few) begin to belive their own delusions. they're going to do what they want, get what they can, get out when it's over and screw the global mess or disasters or the forever gone or scarred.

Anonymous said...

I’m imagining a vision of Vincent Prince sitting in his fireside chair, twisting his handlebar moustache and plotting evil deeds. That seems to sum up what the left thinks this administration is about. That the administration has the best interests of the country at heart but is orchestrating it differently from their own ideas is not a matter for consideration…

Anonymous said...

Actually, just-dave, it's nothing as dramatic. Nice try, though.

It's so simple and as old as the hills. Men want money and power. They kill people to get it while saying that it is for the cause of "freedom." They have just enough people that believe in their cause to keep it going.

Anonymous said...

As always, VHeights, your ravings only serve to verify my position.

Anonymous said...

If you listen to conservative pundits these days the biggest threat to American security is no longer Al Qaeda, but Iran. Iran is on the verge of getting the bomb, and the conservatives are sure Iran will not hesitate to use it on us and Israel.

How did Iran reach this pinnacle? Through the actions of the the United States.

For years Saddam Hussein was the bulwark of our defense against the Iranians. Reagan and Bush I backed him in a long and bloody war against Iran. Reagan ignored Saddam's gassing of the Kurds in 1988 because he couldn't give Iran an inch (even though Reagan was also guilty of double-dealing with the Iranians). After the Gulf War Bush I pulled out of Iraq and left Saddam in power because we (and Dick Cheney) knew Iran would become too powerful with Saddam gone -- the Shiite majority in Iraq would side with Iran.

Most of the Shiite exiles who came to the United States and begged us to cast out Saddam have connections to Iran. The Bush administration's designated Prime Minister for Iraq, Achmed Chalabi, turned out to be a spy for the Iranians.

Now that the United States is bogged down in two wars in the Middle East, Bush has revived the cold war with the Russians with his useless missile defense system, Bush has caved in to North Korean demands, and the Iraq occupation is the disaster that the rest of the world said it would be, American credibility is zero.

Our Army and National Guard are at the breaking point, and we're hemorrhaging a billion dollars a day on wars. No matter what you think of the Iraq war, we're just out of money and manpower. We have to draw down in Iraq, or start a military draft and serious budget cuts (or tax increases).

If it was just one or two mistakes you could give Bush the benefit of the doubt. But they have botched almost every single international and domestic problem in the last six years. This administration is the most corrupt, most incompetent and most arrogant in over a century.

The truth is that most conservatives only care about a few things: guns, abortion and corporate profits. Oh, and these days, sticking it to Mexicans -- really, just closet racism. As long as they get what they want, they don't give a damn about anything else. So they defend Bush because he delivered on the only things they care about.

So what if more Americans have died in Iraq than died in 9/11? I got my 15% capital gains tax rate and a Supreme Court packed with conservative yes men. That's all that matters.

Anonymous said...

So are we going to get any proactive solutions to the Pakistan situation or just more complaining added onto history lessons? Anyone can complain.

Mark Ward said...

Well, I think Obama has a good solution regarding Pakistan. But, y'know, he can't be a hawk because (chuckle chuckle) all liberals have to be weak, right?

My solution is to begin a phased withdrawl of Iraq and redployment to Pakistan. We tell Musharaf that we are tired of his hand wringing and we are are going in. He can help us out or stay out of the way. This must happen soon. The next attack, probably large than 9-11, is being planned in Pakistan, not Iraq. At this point, we really don't have a choice.

Anonymous said...

I can tell you from having travelled to both Pakistan and Saudi Arabia that they, not Iran and Iraq, are our biggest problems. The populations of these countries are rabid anti-American due to their religious psychosis made worse by our abhorrant policies in the Middle East. The next Al Qaeda attack will come from one of these two places, no doubt you are right, Mark

Anonymous said...

Obama talked about invading Pakistan right? Is that what you are advocating? (just to be clear)

Gee Markadelphia, you're telling a nation to "stay out of the way while we do what we want"? Sounds a whole lot like the criticism of our current policy in Iraq.

Did Pakistan attack us? and are you all certain that Pakistan will not become a quagmire like Iraq? While not all citizens of Pakistan are Al Queda many of they are sympathetic to them.

Mark Ward said...

The difference between the situation in Pakistan and Iraq is Al Qaeda. There was no Al Qaeda in Iraq on 9-11-01. They were all in Afghanistan, where we attacked and which I supported. Then we left there, got mired in Iraq, and didn't finish the job.

They relocated to Pakistan where they used the lawless, tribal region, which Musharaf has little control over, to rebuild themselves. They are planning a spectacular attack there, no doubt, so it wouldn't matter where they were. If they were in England or France, those countries would work with us to neutralize them. Pakistan really hasn't. Musharaf has failed to do his part and needs a kick in the ass. He doesn't want to go in there because his army was getting decimated and thus he was losing political capital at home. He is also an extremly unpopular president who is little more than a dictator.

This is where the concept of the elite strike team would come into place. We should have spent the last six years training our men and women to know the region, recognize the various cells that are a threat and neutralize them. We need to start doing that now before it is too late.

Anonymous said...

First remark- dick nixon- about your reference to American Freedom, I never quite get the connection about invading Iraq and having our freedom! I have actually lost most of what I thought I had as a working woman, mother, civil service employee tax paying person with no tax breaks.

Secondly, have any of you ever thought that if we just pulled out and said 'sorry, we made a mistake, we apologize for the harm and we will help you build the homes and schools we have bombed for the past 5 years, and please let us leave and we will get our dirty asses of your holy places', perhaps they -all the Islamist we have intentinally or unitentionally angered- will be a little less likely to attack us? I really believe it works. Try it once, just to tell someone you are genuinely sorry for insalting/harming them and see how quickly they are disarmed.

All we have to loose is a little profit from the arms sales. Iran does not hate us, they are sick of us destrying their lives and economy for the past 55 years and finding a little voice in telling us to watch it and don't mess with them. They are not mad, they are not violent, just sick and tired of not having ANY freedom to live their lives. They have democracy just not left alone to live it. The majority of Iraninans are highly educated and can really lead that part of the world if we allow it, we just can't have one better than us successing there or controlling the oil. Leave Pakistan alone. Stop giving them money to play our prolonged game of fear. They cannot play it at both ends.

Anonymous said...

I just watched an episode of 'House' (the cynical blunt & brilliant surgeon / diagnostician.. on Fox...) One of the surgeons tells Dr House at the end 'You'll save more people but a lot fewer will die on my watch'

A few think this Administration is brilliant and guided and will save humanity (or those of us that count) through pro-active policies which are so far-reaching and cool that no one quite appreciates or understands them for what they are yet.

Others think this Administration of opportunists and self-worshippers gambled everything on the red ('The New Middle East') and lost everything, but are now covering the inner circle ass and hedging bets on future mega gambles that might just prolong the chaos, usher in Victory and save the legacy.

RLD's (good) point, did Pakistan attack us? NO. Which would lead to Elahat's logical conclusion, leave them alone. Except we never leave anyone alone. When we make the rules up and decide where and when and how to intervene. Reasons not a problem to supply.

Some of those reasons are pretty good, as detailed by Mark and the Torch. anti-american religious extremism, Al Qaeda's new hq, dictators that have expired their usefulness... Does that mean we should go in and invade (do we cut the patient?)

The American people have to VERY correctly (for their own sakes) diagnose the REAL problem before they can answer the most important questions. What we might think of as 'SAVING' the patient, the people, the country, future for our kids or the world, might be the fast-track to its and our own one-way unravelling.

We have to do no harm and if we're going to diagnose or save ANYONE, i'm assuming OURSELVES first and foremost, we need to know who we are (limitations, financial human military cultural included) and exactly why we're doing it. Or it's doomed before the gate opens. We were not prepared for Iraq and before we make the next domino move, let's be so well prepared that this can not be repeated and agonisingly prolongued (to the glee of those who see it as a sign) in another part of the world we barely understand.

Anonymous said...

Elahat, I was being sarcastic. Sorry, I loathe everything George Bush and his cronies stand for.