A Regenerated al Qaeda

I and many others have written about how Mr. Bush mismanaged the War on Terror with the unnecessary invasion and occupation of Iraq.  And now we have a report, via the Washington Post, by The Government Accountability Office that  (1) The Bush administration has no comprehensive plan for dealing with the threat posed by Pakistan's lawless tribal areas where bin Laden is believed to be hiding.  (2)  The U.S. has not met its national security goals to destroy terrorist threats and close the safe haven despite having spent more than $10 billion for Pakistani military operations in the border region.  (3)   That al Qaeda had regenerated its ability to attack the United States.  (4)   The report also supports an argument by congressional Democrats that the war in Iraq and administration bungling have helped create new danger in an area largely out of the control of any sovereign state. 

 

The Bottom line: The failure to seal the borders after invading Afghanistan allowed bin Laden, al Qaeda and the Taliban to escape to the tribal areas of Pakistan.  After that failure came the most reckless failure of all: the invasion and occupation of Iraq over WMD that did not exist.  The fight on the real war against terror was dead.  The people will do well to remember Bush's failure as President and Commander-in-Chief and the fact that Senator McCain will continue the same policy if elected President.  The latest poll shows Bush's approval rating at 28%.  That is a tragic statement about an American President, but the worst part is that he has truly earned it---that says it all.

The Forgotten Enemy: al Qaeda

On Tuesday of this week, Mike McConnell, Director of National Intelligence, told the Senate Intelligence Committee that al Qaida has significantly rebuilt its network since the 9-11 attack.

 

He also reported that al Qaida is gaining strength in its refuge in Pakistan and is steadily improving its ability to recruit, train, and position its operatives to carry out attacks against the United States.  Bin Laden and his deputy, al-Zawahri, remain in control and has promoted a new generation of lieutenants.

 

Does this sound like the same Al Qaida Mr. Bush has been telling the American people we have on the run with our military offensive and pressure?  It has to be a devastating feeling for our military to have 160,000 troops in Iraq, fighting a war and occupation over WMD that did not exist, instead of having our military fight the war against those who actually attacked our country on 9-11.

 

Sadly, Mr. Bush, the Republicans in Congress, and Senator McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee, want us to continue the war in Iraq with no plans to end it.  In fact, they want a permanent U.S. presence in Iraq.  Can any one really understand their reckless behavior in keeping our troops in harm's way in a foreign land for years to come, while allowing our true enemy to rebuild in another land?

 

When the Commander-in-Chief and the one who would like to be the Commander-in-Chief stay in a state of denial, our military can only wonder when and how it will all end.  To think that 6 years after being attacked, we find out that al Qaida is in a position of strength and is a growing threat, which is much the same position they were in prior to the attack of 9-11, is just plain sad.  Could the people of this country elect a new President who continues to promote and support a war in Iraq over WMD that did not exist?  Could that really happen?  I would certainly hope not.

Afghanistan: Failing Because of Iraq

The United States invaded Afghanistan over 6 years ago.  That was the right decision because Bin Laden's operations and training camps were there and were supported by the Taliban.  After the tragic events of 9-11, the people of the U.S. supported that operation as did most world leaders.  Our military leaders were convinced that we had Bin Laden trapped on several occasions, but we failed to capture him.

 

As of this writing Bin Laden is still at large.  The U.S. has approximately 26,000 troops in Afghanistan and NATO has about 28,000.  The U.S. has about 160,000 troops in Iraq.  Does that make sense when we knew Iraq was no threat to the U.S.?  Everyone knows who struck the U.S. on 9-11.  Our resources were and still are committed to the wrong war.

 

Yesterday, the Washington Post reported that Defense Secretary Gates is blasting NATO for not doing enough in Afghanistan and that Gates wants to overhaul the alliance strategy in Afghanistan.  Violence is on the rise and the U.S. strategic goals for Afghanistan in 2007 have not been met.   In fact, senior administration officials have gone as far as saying that the country is backsliding.  

 

The bottom line is that we have not been fighting the war on terrorism.  We have turned that over to NATO and our rhetoric is hollow.  Our resources have been wasted in Iraq.  The President's self serving statement, "the War on Terror is centered in Iraq," is purely false.  The War on Terror can not be won when you have a faulty foreign policy.  The next President has to have the wisdom to recognize the real threat that terrorism poses, and have a foreign policy that deals with that threat.  Iraq is not a threat; Afghanistan and bin Laden are. 

Let The Truth Be Known

President Bush, Mr. Cheney, many Republicans in Congress, and some running for their party's nomination are still trying to convince the American people that bin-Laden and al Qaeda attack and hate America because we are a Democracy who enjoys freedom.

 

Does anyone wonder how these people can get it so wrong and why they continue to mislead the country?  It's called fear.  Pat Buchanan, a true conservative Republican wrote a book titled "Where the Right Went Wrong."  He pointed out bin-Laden's own words on why he attacks and hates America.  He listed the reasons and not one has anything to do with Freedom and/or Liberty.  It is because western countries have in the past and still occupy muslim lands.  Bin-Laden is from Saudi Arabia and he has attacked Saudi Arabia because the United States had bases on their land that the Saudi's let the U.S. use during the 1991 gulf war.

 

Now we have been occupying Iraq for almost 5 years over WMD that did not exist.  That is why al-Qaeda in Iraq was formed.  They did not exist before the invasion.  So called tough talk may make politicians feel macho but 6 thousand Americans have paid the price for the tragic events of 9-11 and the war in Iraq, not to mention over 20,000 wounded. An entire book could be written on all the lies this administration has put forward and how they have misled the American people.  It is pretty sad when the President can't bring himself to tell his own people the truth.  The War on Terror will be won when the War on Terror is fought.  

Fred Thompson's latest statements

As Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson hit the campaign trail in Iowa on Thursday and Friday, he had some very interesting comments that I strongly disagree with:

On the threat of Osama bin-Laden:
"Bin Laden being in the mountains of Pakistan or Afghanistan is not as important...as he is more symbolism than anything else...If he disappeared tomorrow we still have this problem. If Iraq disappeared tomorrow, we'd still have this problem. "

On the U.S. turning its attention from finding bin-Laden to Iraq:
"Saddam Hussein was on the cusp of having defeated the United Nations and the free world and the United States. He had certainly had weapons of mass destruction."

Both of these statements are absurd. Bin Laden is much more than symbolism. He is the mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He is the leader of al-Qaeda. Surely killing bin Laden would not end terrorism over night, but it would be a huge step. Millions of people who wish death to every American would have lost their leader. The spirit of the terrorist movement would be crushed and recruiting for al-Qaeda missions would be much harder, as many joined al-Qaeda just because of their wish to follow bin Laden. Fred makes it sound as if it does not matter whether we catch bin Laden or not. But it does matter. Its imperative that we fight al-Qaeda and we stop them from attacking the U.S. again.

And for Fred to say that Saddam Hussein was on the verge of having defeated the free world is ridiculous. The U.S. proved that we could topple Saddam's regime in a matter of weeks. Iraq was absolutely no threat to the U.S. Fred claims that Iraq did have WMDs, but that has been proven a million times to be a lie. Iraq had zero WMDs. By saying that they did is nothing more than furthering the lie put forth by the Bush administration for the start of this war. Politicians need to stop lying to the American people. The truth needs to be told: Iraq had no WMDs, they were in no way involved with 9/11, al-Qaeda was not there before the U.S. invaded, Iraq was no threat to the U.S., and most importantly, the Iraq war was completely unnecessary and it does not benefit the U.S. to be in the middle of Iraq's own civil war.

Fred Thompson is going to lose support fast if he can't get his facts straight. I am sick of some GOP members lying to the American people simply to get elected. Lies got us into the mess in Iraq and lies are the reason we have not yet found bin Laden. The truth is what Americans' want and need. The truth is what will prevail in '08 and the truth is what will keep America safe.

Bin-Laden to speak soon

There is breaking news today that Osama bin-Laden, the man behind the 9/11 terror attacks, will be releasing a new web video addressing the U.S. within the next 72 hours. This will be the first time bin-Laden has been seen on video in nearly three years. Here's my take on this disturbing piece of news:

The GOP is going to try everything to use this to their advantage. They are once again going to try to instill fear in Americans and lie by saying that they are the only ones who can be trusted to keep this nation safe. But I would hope Americans remember, its been six years after 9/11 and we are not even close to finding and killing bin-Laden. And why? Because George Bush lied to the Congress, lied to Americans, and lied to the world and got us into Iraq. By going needlessly into Iraq, we turned our focus from fighting al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and onto Iraq. This allowed bin-Laden and other al-Qaeda members to escape. Now, the latest reports show that since we shifted out attention away from fighting terrorism, al-Qaeda has been able to regroup and regain strength, possibly even stronger than pre-9/11. This should be seen as a warning to those who think republicans can handle national security. They are the ones who let bin-Laden slip through their finger-tips. I would be willing to bet, that if we didn't get into Iraq, we would have found bin-Laden by now and he would be dead. We would have drastically demolished al-Qaeda and therefore greatly decreased the chance of a terrorist attack on our great country. I hope that the American people see this and, in the next election, vote for leaders who want to protect America and not those who want to continue avoiding the problem.

1994: "Invading Baghdad would create Quagmire"

Wondering who made that seemingly psychic prediction? Well the answer may surprise you, it was one of the principle authors of the Iraq War: Vice President Dick Cheney! In an interview with the American Enterprise Institure in '94, Dick Cheney had this to say,

"If we go go Baghdad it would be us all alone, it would be a U.S. occupation of Iraq....When you take down Saddam's government, what are you going to put in its place? Thats a very volatile part of the world and if you take down the central government of Iraq, you can easily start seeing pieces fly off. Syria and Iran would want to claim parts of Iraq....Another thing is casualties....(in the Gulf War the deaths of soldiers was limited)..but for their families it was too much. The question is how many dead Americans is Saddam worth and the answer is not too many."

Wow, this interview actually shocked me. Dick Cheney actually knew what would happen if we invaded Iraq. So why did America do it? What a difference a decade makes. I agree with everything he said in this interview, so why did he and the President lie to the American people and Congress in order to get this war started? Why did they so strongly put forth the need for us to go into Iraq? They lied about Weapons of Mass Destruction, they lied about al-Qaeda in Iraq, and they lied about Saddam Hussein being involved in 9/11. Maybe if Dick Cheney told the truth to Congress, Congress wouldn't have authorized this War. Maybe if Cheney would have told the American people the truth there wouldn't have been wide-spread support for this war. But a maybe is just a maybe, and now we are in this war and neither Cheney nor Bush want to get us out. They continue to lie to us, with Bush recently saying, "the same people who attacked us on 9/11 are in Iraq." Another blatant lie. The 9/11 hijackers were Saudis. Al-qaeda is based in Afghanistan. If Bush and Cheney truly wanted to get who attacked us on 9/11, and I believe they should, why did we take our eye of Afghanistan where bin-Laden and al-Qaeda was and go into Iraq? We could have found bin-Laden and broken up al-Qaeda by now, but instead we are in the middle of an Iraqi civil war. And now we are at greater risk than ever before of another terrorist attack because bin-Laden and al-Qaeda have been able to reform in Pakistan. Bush and Cheney are right on one thing, Iraq does have something to do with national security, but not as they say. The longer we stay in Iraq, the less safe we are here in America, because the longer we're there, the less time we're spending fighting the islamic extremists who want us dead!