By MARC McDONALD
For years, George W. Bush and the GOP have been boasting that America is winning the fight against Al-Qaeda.
Now that cocky claim has come back to haunt Bush and the Republicans. The Associated Press has reported that U.S. intelligence analysts have concluded al-Qaeda has rebuilt its operating capability to a level not seen since 9/11.
You'd think that Bush would have learned a lesson in humility after his 2003 PR stunt fiasco when he strutted in his flightsuit across the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln beneath the "Mission Accomplished" banner. I mean, here we are four bloody years later, and no end in sight in Iraq's civil war.
And now Bush's boast that America is winning in the fight against al-Qaeda has been completely debunked by the new report by U.S. intelligence analysts.
This latest revelation makes a mockery of the cocky claims that we've been hearing from Bush and his supporters over the years. For example, on Sept. 7, 2006, Bush boasted in a speech to the Georgia Public Policy Foundation that "America is safer and America is winning the War on Terror."
Bush hasn't been the only right-winger to make such ridiculous, unsubstantiated claims since 2001. Take Fox News regular Richard Miniter, whose silly book, Losing Bin Laden: How Bill Clinton's Failures Unleashed Global Terror, was the toast of the conservative media in 2004.
Miniter created an even bigger splash in the right-wing world in 2005 with his book, Shadow War: The Untold Story of How Bush is Winning the War on Terror. The book breathlessly detailed such bombshells as "the Bush administration’s secret plan to hit Al-Qaeda before Sept. 11, 2001."
I guess the accepted story about Bush taking month-long leisurely vacations at his Crawford ranch and ignoring critical PDBs was nothing more than a Liberal Media Falsehood.
Anyway, for those taking notes, let's review a couple of facts:
1. George W. Bush and right-wing nutcases like Miniter have been arrogantly boasting for years that America is "winning" in its fight against Al-Qaeda.
2. U.S. intelligence analysts now believe Al-Qaeda has rebuilt its operating capability to a level not seen since 9/11.
Don't expect this latest development to change many minds in the diehard wingnut camp. After all, we're talking about Kool-Aid drinkers who still believe to this day that Saddam was behind 9/11. I'd imagine the right-wing blogs are already gearing up to attack the "liberal" Associated Press for reporting this story in the first place.
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Left Behind: Jeebusland
1 hour ago
14 comments:
This on top of the news, " secret military operation in early 2005 to capture senior members of Al Qaeda in the tribal areas of Pakistan was aborted at the last minute after top officials in the Bush administration decided it was too risky and could jeopardize relations with Pakistan, according to intelligence and military officials." http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/08/news/qaeda.php
Makes you wonder how truly stupid "the base" of the GOP really is!... nah, it doesn't make me wonder really. I have known how stupid they really are all along.
Hi Red Hog, thanks for stopping by. Yes, I heard about that Pakistan report. Truly astonishing.
It saddens me to say it, but I've long concluded that Bush has never been serious about taking out Bin Laden or Al Qaeda. In right-wing world, you always need some lurking "enemy" out there to justify whatever mischief you want to perpetuate. For Hitler, it was the Jews, for Bush it's "terrorists", ie, anyone he doesn't like. It is way past time for one final act of extraorinary rendition: sending Bush and Cheney to the Hague to face the World Court. There's little doubt that such an action would eliminate a lot of "terrorism" from the world stage.
With a few springs loose in his head, Bush automatically forgets most idiotic things he said -- and he always figures you will forget them too.
That's if you believe the AP, which I don't. They've been carrying Bush water for years.
And jeez, just as Prosecutorgate catches Gonzales in yet another perjury, and the President is tramping all over the rule of law, well, by golly, here's some more terror to look at.
Chertoff has a gut hunch, and AP reports this and other frightening tidbits (like there's a secret terror cell on its way to a town near you)!
And many of my fellow progressives, always expertly played by the righty spinsters, fall right into line; they give these bs stories credibility by treating them as facts to use against the right.
Not that I don't think something big isn't coming. These corruptors haven't played their ace yet. I just don't think we're hearing about the REAL perps.
Great blog, btw. Will visit again.
Punky, from PunkyAmerica.com
So, maybe the majority of our troops should have been in Afghanistan, I dunno, say, finding OBL & Co., instead of laying claim to oil wells in Iraq? Call me crazee, but wouldn't that have been a better strategy?
I believe the Bushies think talking about terrorism rather than the war, the scandals, health care, or so on is better for them. But I think your point is well made, and it suggests that people just aren't buying it any more.
For all their macho man postering, the reality is that Republicans couldn't win a knife fight with a gun.
I am confused. I read that Al-Qaeda is a longrunning intelligence operation of the CIA, and the covert agencies of Pakistan and the Brits, used as a bogey man to keep the populations of the West properly frightened while the Military/Industrial Ghouls do their thing......then this report.
'Splain please.
Mission FUBAR, indeed.
Too bad there's not a brutal, secular, Sunni dictator-type that could control the population thru fear & intimidation... oh, and seal-the-borders.
You know, to "stabilize" things and end the chaos... [?]
Just one man's opinion*, Herb.
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...*in a world-of-many.
Its all so amazing isn't it? The fight against the propogands/p.r. campaigns by the right-wing nut-jobs (what they see as 'democratic debate') by great patriots like Red Hog must ever continue. Our lives and country depend on it. Keep up the good work!
Hi Daniel, thanks for the comment. Yes, I believe that when Bush's term ends, if he plans to tour the world like many ex-presidents do, he'll need to be careful where he sets foot, or else he could face an arrest warrant in any number of nations.
Hi Punky, thanks for the comment and your kind words.
Sometimes I think that it's an error in our thinking that
we don't have more political assassinations in this country. But I suppose less famous assholes would replace them all, and we'd be in the same place where we started.
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