International Consensus: Bush Terrorism Strategy Failing
International Consensus: Bush Terrorism Strategy Failing
Increasingly, President Bush is becoming more isolated in his view that the Iraq war is stemming the progress of global terror. Three separate intelligence reports — the British intelligence agency, a Saudi intelligence analysis, and an Israeli report — contradict Bush’s view that we have to “defeat them abroad before they attack us at home.” The emerging consensus is that the occupation of Iraq is inspiring people around the world to join the ranks of the terrorists:
“A team of MI5 analysts concludes: ‘Though [terrorists] have a range of aspirations and ’causes’, Iraq is a dominant issue for a range of extremist groups and individuals in the UK and Europe.‘” [Sunday Times (London), 7/28/05]
“The findings of an investigation, to be published soon, into 300 young Saudis, caught and interrogated by Saudi intelligence on their way to Iraq to fight or blow themselves up, shows that very few had any previous contact with al-Qa’ida or any other terrorist organisation previous to 2003. It was the invasion of Iraq which prompted their decision to die.” [The Independent, 7/24/05]
“The Israeli Global Research in International Affairs Center reported earlier this year that Iraq ‘has turned into a magnet for jihadi volunteers.’ But not established terrorists. Rather, explains report author Reuven Paz, ‘the vast majority of Arabs killed in Iraq have never taken part in any terrorist activity prior to their arrival in Iraq.’” [Copley News Service, 7/26/05]
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This just in…
July 29th, 2005 at 12:43 pmThis one should have been titled: “This just in from Captain Obvious”.
Following on from H.L. Mencken: http://www.downtheavenue.com/2004/11/as_democracy_is.html
You pretty much get the ‘War ‘n’ Terr’ - sorry ‘global struggle’ - you expect too.
July 29th, 2005 at 12:46 pmBut we haven’t been attacked in 4 years. Doesn’t that prove we’re safe and Bush is doing a great job and liberals are all stupid?
Seriously, if you want a laugh and cry simultaneously, read the opinion pages from the midwest.
July 29th, 2005 at 12:53 pmDoes anybody realize how the Brits are breaking open the bombing cell?
It makes our President Bush look really stupid and the complete and total imcompetences of this administration?
Blair upstaging Bush?
Imagine that!
July 29th, 2005 at 12:59 pmI am ashamed of Bush. I am angry that people find him acceptable. I would rather die than be called a “Chickenhawk”.
July 29th, 2005 at 1:06 pmI used to think that “cowards died 1000 deaths”. The adage does not apply to sociopaths.
I’m thinking that a retard could upstage bush.
Oops, let me rephrase that… A mentally diminished and challenged person could upstage bush.
It’s apparent we have to get out of Iraq quicker than bushco would like. How can this be done w/o the country becoming Taliban II? I seriously do not know, but the alternative is looking increasingly worse.
July 29th, 2005 at 1:09 pmWith everyone so distracted by the Wilson/Plame/Rove/Novak affair, who is investigating the matter of WHO FORGED THE DOCUMENTS IN THE FIRST PLACE? The documents that surfaced and prompted the questions into Niger. Cheney, anyone?
July 29th, 2005 at 1:11 pmI’d qualify that ‘Blair upstage Bush’ stuff with the note that Blair is still ranting on about ‘bankrupt ideologies’ and ‘nothing to do with Iraq’. That’s a complete load of toss and the Brits know it, if you check their opinion polls. Blair is still trying to hide from his part in creating the conditions that led to those bombers. Funny how Iraq was supposed to be a big funder of terror and 75% of Americans thought Saddam did 9-11 and now, noone wants to draw the link?
July 29th, 2005 at 1:22 pmAha, Marie, there’s a tale. Go to Josh Marshall on TPM Cafe for his take. Then go to Tompaine.com and find out about John ‘Brownshirt’ Bolton and the yellowcake. The dots are all there to be connected.
If I was to take a wild guess, conspiracy theory go wild, the docs were forged by the Iranians (since they are not that good of a forgery apparently, the CIA is cleverer than that). The Iranians do seem to be the only people winning the Iraq war at the moment.
July 29th, 2005 at 1:26 pmthis is how it is in old Baghdad:
Greetings from the Green Zone. As I am sure you know the DC Big Dogs blew into Baghdad unannounced a couple days back. I don’t know what spin you are hearing as to the reason for the visit but it may lead to what turns out to be nothing more than a glorified BUG OUT. Truth is this place is just a hair away from a full scale civil war, with us in the middle. Every one here knows if this place craters, we cant handle it. We are constantly packed and ready for the hundred mile per hour run to the airport. Most others have done the same. Each day the insurgents grow stronger, wiser, and more aggressive. Now they kill everyone they can get their hands on. The locals that join the police or the defense forces just need the money, and don’t have the heart to fight. When the bad guys march in, either the US will fight them or no one will fight them. When we pull out they will take over. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. I know it’s hard to see over the walls of the Beltway, but you guys in DC really need to look around. Two Thousand of the sheep have already paid.
Wandering Texan- Baghdad
July 29th, 2005 at 1:46 pmOn the subject of CHICKENHAWKS :
Why are all the Iraq War Veterans entering politics DEMOCRATS? Could it be because they’ve seen how the powerful are using them for their imperial designs, and are now speaking out?
http://www.usatoday.com/ news/ nation/ 2005-07-27-dems-iraq-vets_x.htm
July 29th, 2005 at 2:12 pmHuh. I haven’t seen any Iraq war veterans running on a platform of, “You need to support this war and stop spreading bad news. Things are going great!”
Anyone else?
I thought it was interesting that the GOP was unconcerned because one Iraq war vet challenger was “too liberal.”
July 29th, 2005 at 2:26 pmHipster, there’s one over on yesterday’s thread about Stealth Roberts who might run. She’s too old to reenlist, she’s certainly got the Fox News talking points down just fine. We’ve just got finished her calling me an anti-Semite, so I think she might be thinking New York or Florida.
July 29th, 2005 at 2:53 pmAnd Captain Obvious is back from lunch with this:
“The election has kind of underscored that George Bush is popular in the United States, and, so I think there has become a more general tendency to think ‘well, that’s who they want to be their president; he must reflect the way they think about the world,” he said. “…And Europeans then think ‘well, maybe we don’t understand Americans as much as we used to or like we thought we used to.’”
http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-07-28-voa65.cfm
July 29th, 2005 at 3:02 pmTwo Iraq veteran Democrats –
David Ashe is running for Congress — here’s his position on what we should do in Iraq: (WARNING: He’s to the right of Bush — about the same as Kerry)
David Ashe had the honor to be a member of 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment during Operation Iraqi Freedom. He feels privileged to have been part of the military operations that rid the world of Saddam Hussein. He spent many months in the streets of Iraq all day every day. He saw first-hand the triumphs and challenges of our mission there. But while our military is giving 100%, lack of post-war planning and lack of organization by civilian administrators hindered this effort. David had first-hand experience as he worked with Ambassador Bremer’s office to restore the legal system in the Al Muthanna region of Iraq.
It is time to press for action. The stakes are just too high to bicker over partisan and election politics. If our military leadership requests troops and materials, those requests must be met without hesitation. It is time to support the strongest position on the ground in Iraq that is possible so that we will follow through with the mission and have success.
Paul Hackett’s running too — here’s his pitch: (It’s about the same as Rummy’s and Dean’s)
If elected, I will be the only member of Congress to have
served in Iraq. I fought in the Fallujah campaign, took part in reconstruction efforts, and worked side-by-side with Iraqi military and civil personnel. I know what’s really happening in Iraq.
The White House has been painting a rosy picture and people
aren’t buying it anymore. We all know the outcome is uncertain and there is no exit date. But even now, too many conservatives just want to applaud whatever the administration does. And too many liberals who opposed the war want to see the president’s Iraq policy fail.
I was against the war. It was a misuse of our military that
damaged our credibility throughout the world and squandered our political capital. Still, I volunteered to serve, and I have no regrets. But now we need to face the reality of the situation there. Our country has gone to war and every American must share in that responsibility.
The good news is we can successfully exit Iraq once the roughly 140,000 Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) are adequately trained and skilled enough to defend their fledgling government.
July 29th, 2005 at 3:25 pmMore and more I feel less and less secure with the Bush ‘over there’ policy that creates terrorists over here that we have not equiped our police to find. The British and Egyptian experience should begin to alert people to the possibility that we are using the wrong instrument in the wrong theater. Bush’s over there policy looks more and more like Vietnamization; and, we all know how that turned out. There is no military victory to be won in Iraq; only a nation to build that we had a major part in destroying.
July 29th, 2005 at 4:21 pmSo question: does the relative peace of the four years after 9/11 in the mainland (anthrax mailman notwithstanding - what happened to him?), mean that Dubya’s policy is working? If there is another attack on the US mainland, then what? Not my country, so what do you Americans think?
July 29th, 2005 at 4:35 pmTerry,
First, there’re a lot of questions — important questions –about 9/11 that haven’t yet been answered. We don’t know exactly how it happened, or how it was able to happen, without either collusion at the highest level or gross incompetence at many levels. In other words, 9/11 should never have happened, so the fact that it hasn’t happened again doesn’t indicate anything in itself.
Second, we know that Bush’s policy isn’t working. Afghanistan’s a mess with many civilian casualties and — well, we can track a mad cow from Canada over a period of years, but gosh, we just can’t seem to find Mr. Bin Laden. Of course the Bush/Bin Laden family frienships over the years have nothing to do with this, you understand. In Iraq it’s pretty well recognized now that we’re creating trained terrorists by the bucketful. Our policies of harassing and jailing civilians, and confiscating their possessions, make a lot of people unhappy and then when we indiscriminately kill their family members they take up arms against us.
If there’s another attack in the US, I expect there will be a further dimunition of our civil liberties and more war. In other words, more of the same which will lead to more of the same, and so on. And that’s because it concentrates power and profit in the rulers. If this cycle isn’t broken, and I see nothing that will break it, our country will go bust and we’d all better learn Chinese. I’ve already started: tsai chen (goodbye)
July 29th, 2005 at 5:02 pmTerrytheTurtle,
July 29th, 2005 at 6:10 pmThanks for the tip — so my guess at Cheney was a a near-hit, with Bolton being the likely suspect. That makes sense doesn’t it? It explains the White House cheerleading on his behalf.
If we were to examine all the creeps in this White House, I think we would find they are all full of green slime.
I just can’t believe we went to war in Iraq. I just can’t believe it.
July 29th, 2005 at 6:42 pmMarie, there is another possible in the Treasongate: Rice. There is a good argument lurking on the net somewhere with that one: Huffington, Kos, I don’t remember. Again she was on board the Africa flight with the memo listing Plame’s status. You could follow her, seemingly incompetent, “I took it out”, “No I didn’t”, “The CIA did it” obfuscation in Spring 2003 when the 16 words were ‘outed’ by Joe Wilson. I initially thought it was simple incompetence: after all she didn’t do anything with the August 6th, 2001 PDB.
But Bolton is Cheney’s huckleberry and Rice is Bush’s, I just don’t know. So there you go: is it ‘Ms Rice in the Plane with the CIA Memo’ or ‘Mr Bolton in the NSA communications with the yellowcake’? Oh if only Judith Miller was a real journalist and not a right-wing hack in Ahmed Chalabi’s pocket.
July 29th, 2005 at 6:57 pmIt doesn’t take a report by three other countries intelligence agencies to convince me that the so called “war on terror” isn’t going as well as we are lead to believe. Common sense and history should tell the administration they are creating more terrorist than they are killing. Look at Viet Nam and look at Iraq and you will hear the General saying the same things Westmoreland was saying back then. Gen Casey and Abazaid are political generals like Westmoreland and are will to say what Rumsfeld wants them to say, regradless of the facts on the ground.
We helped Sadam while he was fighting Iran and the monster we helped to create had to be destroyed. We helped to create the Viet Mhin in North Viet Nam to fight the Japanese during WWII and that monster (the Viet Cong) had to be destroyed. The problem in both cases is that the monster didn’t quit fighting and one lived to defeat us. This new monster may do the same, because the people charged with killing the beast won’t admit how dangerous it really is.
Someone once said, “Those who forget the past, are doomed to repeat it”, and it’s seems we’d forgotten the lessons of Viet Nam. Gen Swartskauft said it best when he said of Gulf War I, “This will not be another Viet Nam”, be he remembered Westmoreland and his “Light and the End of the Tunnel” speech. I advise Gen Casey and Abizaid to wise up and speak up before it’s too late. They will go down with the same reputation as Westmoreland unless they stand up and tell the truth. http://WWW.Plainnews.blogspot.com
July 29th, 2005 at 7:07 pmVer-r-y interesting! All plausible. It is like a human game of “Clue” — a real whodunit.
July 29th, 2005 at 7:12 pmAbout Judith Miller, I know she was an outlet for Ahmed Chalabi’s propaganda; and though I detest that a reporter has been jailed, I am questioning all of that now since I am suspicious of everyone. Was she a total shill for the administration? A “legitimate” outlet for any one of them? A sort of “double-agent?” Is she in jail because she is really protecting the bigger fish like Cheney, or Rice? Or is she protecting Bolton, so he can get in the UN?
Unfortunately, they can all come out of the grand jury report with dirt under their fingernails, but the rabid right-wingers will say, Kerry did it. They will launch an investigation into the private lives of the jury and we will be led away from the criminals.
We know, buckfush, we know.
July 29th, 2005 at 9:33 pmYou make some very valid points, koolhandluke. And it was Carlos Santayana who said, “Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it.” And Schwartzkopf, or however you spell it, was right to say after the first Gulf War that Iraq wouldn’t - shouldn’t - be be another Vietnam. Colin Powell, the administration’s Jiminy Cricket, was marginalized when he suggested that invading Iraq was maybe not such a great idea.
July 29th, 2005 at 9:57 pmThe problem with today’s generals is the problem with our government as a whole. Everything has been grossly politicized. That’s not to say the military’s never been political - it is by nature. But today’s generals learned a lesson from General Shalishkasvili (aren’t there any generals whose names are easy to spell?). He spoke up and said we weren’t sending enough troops to Iraq. He’s a civilian now. And a Democrat, I might add. That’s precisely why Abizaid et.al. don’t speak up. They want to retire at grade.
This administration (a period of history I call The Outrage)doesn’t tolerate dissent; not from within the White House, not from Congress, not from the citizenry, not from the press.
Don is afraid that when there’s another attack there will be a further diminution of civil liberties. You bet there will be. And I suspect we’ll all be arrested for posting at this and other sites.
Let’s pray that the electorate wises up next year and realigns Congress so our Special Olympics contestant of a president becomes as lame a duck as a lame duck can be.
But it’s up to every anti-Bush citizen to do something about it. It feels good to jerk each other off in these forums, but preaching to the choir never won an election.
Forget hearing the truth from the generals. General Casey recently said we could start withdrawing troops from Iraq next spring or summer if the Iraqis got trained (big if), then the next day he got slapped down — no withdrawal talk. As Ray Mcgovern writes: Aping the president’s practice of surrounding himself with sycophants, Rumsfeld has promoted a coterie of yes-men to top military ranks – men who “kiss up and kick down,” in the words of former Assistant Secretary of State Carl Ford, describing UN-nominee John Bolton’s modus operandi at the State Department. So when the president assures us, as he did yesterday, that he will be guided by the “sober judgment of our military leaders,” he is referring to the castrati.
The new JCS Chairman Peter Pace isn’t a typical ‘tell-it-like-it-is Marine, he’s a veteran boot-licker. General Myers, the outgoing Chairman, has had his head up Rummy’s butt for four years, and was in with him on 9/11, but he’s actually showing some independence now, saying this shouldn’t be an all-military show. Trying to bail out, for the record.
To read what a real Marine general, Smedley Butler, had to say, go to: http://www.warisaracket.org.htm
July 29th, 2005 at 11:18 pm#23 Marie - you are on the case here. Tell your friends, your in-laws (yes my in-laws are fascists, I married for the sex, I apologise?) anyone who will listen - it’s not about the poor soul who vanished in Aruba - you are all being screwed here and now.
Miller sold her soul a long time ago to ‘A man from Iran’. She’s loking after her own future and noone else’s. She’s a reporter the same as Bob ‘My teeth are not that pointy?’ Novak is a reporter.
Oh and by the way, It’s all Clinton’s fault.
July 30th, 2005 at 3:15 am#23, Marie, Terry’s got it.
“and though I detest that a reporter has been jailed,”
-Don’t think of her as a reporter, that’s inaccurate. Think of Miller as a promoter, or a stenographer, of government positions — really a quite typical corporate media employee. (A total shill for the administration, as you suggest.) In fact, you’ll look long and hard to find any other kind. Those that ever report the un-government position (especially in wartime) tend to get fired, or if they’re in Iraq, shot.
“is she in jail because” — she could be in jail because she’s smart enough to see the royalties from the blockbuster book she may be drafting in this career enhancement stage of her life. I guess the down-side of spoon feeding reporters and using them to promote your agenda, a routine government activity, is that they may turn on you at some point for personal gain. But shredded documents are worthless, and then it’s ‘your word against mine.’
July 30th, 2005 at 11:25 amEvery single morning myself and my husband wake up and say “will today be the day?”.
“Will the camera’s be rolling”. “Will Foxnews play it over and over again?”
Is today the day we watch Bushie fall dead from a heart attack (or something else) while the camera’s are rolling.
Please, Please…….
July 30th, 2005 at 1:24 pmTrerrorism Strategy ?
July 30th, 2005 at 1:46 pmWhat strategy ?
The only strategy junior has is to funnel
every tax dollar possible into the pockets of his butt-hole buddies.
And he seems to be doing very well at it.
#30, Susan
I guess we all have our ways of coping. Every day, for some time now, as we travel a lot, whenever we see an American flag at half staff, we cross our fingers and silently hope. Of course it’s silly, because Cheney would be much, much worse. Yes, it’s possible.
July 30th, 2005 at 2:45 pmThank you for your comment Don. I’m not worried about Cheney though, he’s three quarters of the way to his fatal heart attack. The pressure of being prez should do him in just fine.
I’m still hoping and still saying please….
July 30th, 2005 at 5:52 pmOur (gradually reduced) presence in Iraq will be required for the next five to ten years. There is a philosophy that militaries in democracies must adopt. A military force must understand itself to be a tool of the state, subjected to civilian power. The Iraqi military cannot be abandoned until we ensure that they have the necessary institutional ethos of protecting civilian power. An alternative to anarchy could also be a military coup by a self-perceived independent actor.
On the other hand, it seems the media is getting bored with Bush’s resolve. The topic of a troop withdrawal may be just that - a way to stir the pot.
I hope this isn’t just wishful thinking on my part. I hope there are people that understand the consequences of an early withdrawal, and will withstand the mounting pressure of shortsightedness.
July 31st, 2005 at 8:49 pmI’m sorry, Kira, many of us don’t care if the media is bored or not. They have spun this war in concert with the illegal imperialists. Now the chickens are coming home to roost — the spun-dry Americans are starting to say “that’s enough.” Many of us will be out on the streets on September 24th chanting that we want the US military out of Iraq, and we want it now. Not in five to ten years, now. If there’re enough of us, we may have an effect. We have to do it ourselves, because our Congress won’t. We have offered up our dead, and our maimed, and it’s not enough. We need to demonstrate to our corporate-driven government what we want. We want OUT of Iraq. And then let the Iraqis sort out the consequences. Nobody spoon-fed us when we built our country. Viva free Iraq, free of Saddam, free of Americans and free of Bush’s resolve.
August 1st, 2005 at 1:14 amWe cannot make a success out of our invasion of Iraq. The best we can do is to reduce the future casualty count by withdrawing in an orderly but expeditious fashion. We should encourage an Islamic democracy in Iraq, and call for all-Islamic peacekeeping. We should apologize to Iran for our past meddling and strive our best to live up to our principles. We should renounce the scare tactics of trying to stamp out every nuclear reactor in the world and not interfere in Iran’s affairs. Let them have their bomb if they want one. We have little to fear. We need to talk to North Korea directly. We need a new president. Now that I’ve solved those problems, good night. Sleep well, everybody.
August 1st, 2005 at 2:45 amBill,
August 1st, 2005 at 9:24 amAn apology is not an option.
They never make a mistake.
Seems to me bushs’ terrorism strategy is working just fine-halliburton’s doing great,record profits for his oil buddies,civil rights being repealed,and he gets to pretend that he’s not an asshole.Yep 911 worked like a charm for him.
August 5th, 2005 at 1:57 pm