Bush Administration Embraces Counterterrorism Strategy It Once Smeared As ‘Naive and Dangerous’
Bush Administration Embraces Counterterrorism Strategy It Once Smeared As ‘Naive and Dangerous’
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has approved a new National Defense Strategy arguing that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan should not be allowed to distract from the “implications of fighting a long-term, episodic, multi-front, and multi-dimensional conflict” against terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda. Gates’ new strategy “encourages current and future U.S. leaders to work with other countries to eliminate the conditions that foster extremism.”
The strategy concludes, “the most important military component of the struggle against violent extremists is not the fighting we do ourselves, but how well we help prepare our partners to defend and govern themselves.”
The Bush administration’s recognition that “even winning the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan will not end the ‘Long War’ against violent extremism” is surprising. In 2004, when Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) expressed the same view, Bush smeared Kerry in two ads, posing the question “How can Kerry protect us if he doesn’t even understand the threat?” Watch it:
Kerry said in 2004, “I think we can do a better job of cutting off financing, of exposing groups, of working cooperatively across the globe, of improving our intelligence capabilities nationally and internationally, of training our military and deploying them differently, of specializing in special forces and special ops, of working with allies.”
Bush mistakenly believed that using military force to bring about regime change and then occupy Iraq would disrupt terrorism throughout the region. In contrast, Kerry argued the U.S. should focus on countering “nonstate actors” whose “goal wasn’t to govern states but to destabilize them.”
Bush and Vice President Cheney smeared Kerry as “naive and dangerous.” Now, four years later, as they embrace Kerry’s approach to counterterrorism, the threats that they promised to protect the country against have only grown more dangerous.
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36 Responses to “Bush Administration Embraces Counterterrorism Strategy It Once Smeared As ‘Naive and Dangerous’”
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Once again, the Left are proved to be correct.
July 31st, 2008 at 11:45 amIt is so, so sad that we must conclude we are worse off now than we were in 2000 because we elected the wrong candidate. Gore was the better choice in 2000; Kerry was the better choice in 2004.
Let's hope that we don't make this same mistake in 2008 by electing McNumbNuts.
July 31st, 2008 at 11:48 amGeorge W Bush has never been a legitimate President of the United States.
Both Al Gore and John Kerry have been proven, in hind sight, to have been correct.
Let's hope America has learned a lesson and our next President will be the candidate who sides with Gore and Kerry.
July 31st, 2008 at 11:49 amI think that the new RAND study better covers the facts of the "Long War" on terror much better than Gates' new National Defense Strategy.
http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG741/
July 31st, 2008 at 11:52 amI wonder how much the Rand study published recently has to do with this policy reversal?
Al-Qaeda can be defeated if the US relies less on force and more on intelligence and policing to find its leaders, a leading US think-tank says.
"Terrorists should be perceived and described as criminals, not holy warriors and our analysis suggests that there is no battlefield solution to terrorism," said Seth Jones, political scientist and lead author of the study.
July 31st, 2008 at 11:52 amD'oh!
Clive A. was quicker on the "Submit" button than I was.
July 31st, 2008 at 11:53 amThe only people that are “dangerous" is Bush & Cheney. Their lack of planning and forethought have cost too many soldiers and Iraqi's their lives.
Whatever approach is more sound and prudent should always be the course we follow no matter what side of the isle it comes from. Republicans just never want to admit they are wrong most of the time. That is what happens when the citizens and the country's best interest comes in last while their greed for oil and money are always a priority.
July 31st, 2008 at 11:55 amIt is not enough to say so here. This has to be turned into an actual campaign strategy. McShame must be confronted with these issues through ads, articles and the talk show circuit. Face it, we have not really seen the pundits pick this up. Remember how our candidates were savaged over this issue? Remember how we were ridiculed as stupid and unpatriotic? We need to make sure that everyone understands the implication of this issue and the RAND report findings. We need to hold MSM accountable if they fail to promote this story. I am tired of the right wing media bias in this country.
July 31st, 2008 at 11:56 amIt is not enough to say so here. This has to be turned into an actual campaign strategy. McShame must be confronted with these issues through ads, articles and the talk show circuit. Face it, we have not really seen the pundits pick this up. Remember how our candidates were savaged over this issue? Remember how we were ridiculed as stupid and unpatriotic? We need to make sure that everyone understands the implication of this issue and the RAND report findings. We need to hold MSM accountable if they fail to promote this story. I am tired of the right wing media bias in this country.
July 31st, 2008 at 11:56 amNewton's Third Law of Motion states:
For every action there is an equal and OPPOSITE reaction.
It's why you can't fight a fire with more fire, but must use water. The detachment from this reality has shown the Bush Regime to be the one who is truly dangerous.
In order to get respect, you must first give it. Something Bush refuses to learn.
Five months, two weeks, and six days to go...
July 31st, 2008 at 11:56 amThe RAND Corporation suggested shifting from a "War on Terror" to "Counter-Terrorism". They studied 648 militant groups which existed between 1968 and 2006 and, based on their findings, the report concluded that only 7% were defeated militarily.
Political settlements helped neutralise 43% groups and an effective use of police and intelligence information helped to disrupt, capture or kill 40% of leaders of such groups, the study says.
It recommended a shift to intelligence and policing, and less focus on force. That doesn't sound like a particularly new idea.
July 31st, 2008 at 11:56 amVe grow too soon old and too late shmart!
July 31st, 2008 at 11:58 amSure. NOW they are considering using different tactics. After they have looted the treasury for seven and a half years. Bush/Cheney are nothing more than thieves.
July 31st, 2008 at 12:06 pmralph the wonder llama Says:
I wonder how much the Rand study published recently has to do with this policy reversal?
July 31st, 2008 at 11:52 am
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Pff! That's just silly talk. When has this administration ever been known to read anything?
The only way the RAND Corporation would affect White House policy is if they distilled their report to four or five Powerpoint slides.
July 31st, 2008 at 12:07 pmOf course you're right, HTH. I was forgetting what country we live in at the moment, and who is the current Deciderer.
July 31st, 2008 at 12:13 pmTypical Republican strategy.
July 31st, 2008 at 12:14 pmWhen the Republican ideas flop, steal the Democrats ideas
"Naive and dangerous".....seriously, I don't even know how to respond to that one. Let's see...if I had to pick two words to sum up the Bushies' foreign policy....Yep, those two words ought to do it.
(Maybe I'd just add the word greedy).
July 31st, 2008 at 12:16 pmLook at all the trolls rushing to defend their Boy King!
What? No posts yet? HMMMMMM
July 31st, 2008 at 12:17 pmGreat! A new opportunity for School of Americas aka "Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation" to train more dictatorial regimes on "enhanced interrogation" and how to quash democratic movements on an international scale, not just western hemisphere.
July 31st, 2008 at 12:18 pm"First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win." -Gandhi
July 31st, 2008 at 12:21 pmBush and Vice President Cheney smeared Kerry as “naive and dangerous.”
Now, THAT is rich! A dry drunk AWOL ANG Frat Boy and a 5 deferment scumbag calling a Vietnam War vet 'naive and dangerous'.
Maybe the best example of projection yet from the BushCo regime.
July 31st, 2008 at 12:24 pmWell sure Bush did prove to be wrong about this, and as it turns out the thing that truly is "naive and dangerous" is Bush himself. And so what if looking back shows that his two opponents were better suited for the job? What's really important is that the American people got a president they'd be happy to have a beer with.
Cheers!
Is it January yet?
July 31st, 2008 at 12:27 pm1) The RAND corporation - the flagship of conservative think tanks.
2) What I said last year doesn't count. Youtube doesn't exist so you can't show me saying it or not.
3) JMOHR is right, This has to become a campaign issue. ON this and many other things, the commie pinko liberal democrats were right and the fascists were wrong!
We're dealing with bullies. We've got to call them on their bullying in public forums. Remember the schoolyard - the bully confronts the victim and everyone gathers around. Oddly enough, the spectators stand by and actually side with the bully (perhaps as being on the winning side gives them brownie points).
Until the victim fights back, the routine repeats itself over and over and over. However, once the bully is exposed for their weakness, the bully looses a substantial amount of power as the spectators also loose fear of the bully.
July 31st, 2008 at 12:30 pmHas bush gotten anything right in the last 7 1/2 years? By right, I mean right for my country, not right for bush's cronies.
July 31st, 2008 at 12:31 pmMaplestreet is right (I used to live on Maplestreet by the way). Bush has taken the democratic position on a bunch of issues recently. We need to force this fact into the mainstream consciousness.
July 31st, 2008 at 12:33 pmIs cheney in a coma?
July 31st, 2008 at 12:40 pmWell, he did guess right that Congress wouldn't do squat to stop his mad power grab.
Oh. Then no.
July 31st, 2008 at 12:41 pmGOP is just another way of saying HYPOCRITE.
July 31st, 2008 at 12:45 pmMapleStreet Says:
3) JMOHR is right, This has to become a campaign issue. ON this and many other things, the commie pinko liberal democrats were right and the fascists were wrong!
July 31st, 2008 at 12:30 pm
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My fear is that middle-of-the-road independents will see Republicans adopting these "liberal" policies and think "well, why vote for a Democrat, when I can vote for a Republican and get all the policies of a Democrat, plus all the gay-bashing and fear-mongering?"
July 31st, 2008 at 12:51 pmI can`t wait for Mcflipper to join in on this one....
July 31st, 2008 at 1:01 pmThey were lying dumbarses then, and they're lying dumbarses now. Did a cabal plundering the global economy for oil revenues take over the US government over a period of 3 or 4 decades? Yes. Are they clever at what they do? Yes, as far as authoritarians go, they've managed to legislate against the middle and lower classes, all the while entertaining them with "bread and circuses" and frightening them with scary fookin "terrorists" and gay marriage and the like.
But in terms of foresight for anything other than their own bottom line, like the world their grandchildren will inhabit, they're despicable dumbarses.
July 31st, 2008 at 1:26 pmAnd that goes for their fookin followers too.
July 31st, 2008 at 1:28 pm*sigh*
Once again, we're proven to be correct. And will the idiots listen?
Nope. They're on to the next moronic talking point about Obama being like Britney Spears...
This is one of those days, guys, when I'm so angry I could cheerfully use a baseball bat to silence the next idiot who spouts a rightwing talking point at me...
July 31st, 2008 at 1:31 pmbut 2004 was so way before mccain's magical mystery surge...which now that mccain has won the war and shops freely in Baghdad same as if its Indiana no one should be worrying about terrorists - just shop like john mccain.
July 31st, 2008 at 1:48 pmThere seems to be a distinct lack of silly defense by our friends on this thread as well. What gives guys? Don't you wanna refute this?
July 31st, 2008 at 2:04 pmThe right wingers seem to be singing "Silence is Golden."
July 31st, 2008 at 2:35 pmNot that thats all bad
tony and lido