Posted on 08/27/2005 4:51:10 AM PDT by snarks_when_bored
Christopher Hitchens is truly Remarkable.
Christopher Hitchens is truly Remarkable.
This administration sometimes seems to take the 'never complain, never explain' adage a bit too far.
As Mr. Hitchens opines above
I do in fact know the answer to this question. So deep and bitter is the split within official Washington, most especially between the Defense Department and the CIA, that any claim made by the former has been undermined by leaks from the latter. (The latter being those who maintained, with a combination of dogmatism and cowardice not seen since Lincoln had to fire General McClellan, that Saddam Hussein was both a "secular" actor and--this is the really rich bit--a rational and calculating one.)
My opinion is that the CIA is still full of Clinton plants who are working against rather than for us. I cite Valarie Plame and her non CIA husband Joe Wilson as only the surface, as well as the phony 911 Commision's cover up. The enemy within is well embeded. Let's hope the new Homeland Security and CIA directors can flush them out.
There's no cure for that illusion, but the resulting bureaucratic chaos and unease has cornered the president into his current fallback upon platitude and hollowness. It has also induced him to give hostages to fortune. The claim that if we fight fundamentalism "over there" we won't have to confront it "over here" is not just a standing invitation for disproof by the next suicide-maniac in London or Chicago, but a coded appeal to provincial and isolationist opinion in the United States. Surely the elementary lesson of the grim anniversary that will shortly be upon us is that American civilians are as near to the front line as American soldiers.
I differ from the wonderful Mr. Hitchens in this comprehension. I grew up skeet shooting. I've been duck hunting. In order to get the catch, you flush the ducks out. Herein lies, a principal difference in approach between the two operations. But I believe the DOD holds the trump card in the here and now (and since 9-11) given that the US was attacked - Furiously, evilly, cruelly. Since 9-11, the Admin has made good to "flush" out the terrorists and murderers. And this has been done. And it has been conducted in a very cost-effective, logistically brilliant manner -- drawing the terrorists from all over the world to, Iraq and Afghanistan, Where they may be flushed out, and thereby preserving untold millions of innocent lives around the world -- locations where these terrorists have taken root; but have been drawn to travel to Iraq and Afghanistan, instead.
In MHO, had the war not been conducted this way, pick any country, we, the US and Coalition Forces, would have been forced to fight this war on terms lain out by the terrorists, themselves.
Ergo, the threat to the US is unchanged -- they, the terrorists have always had us in their sights, the fact that they still do, is nothing new. But what is new? Our Homeland Security, Patriot Act, FBI, Intel and Law Enforcement have new marching orders -- one in which they can share intel, and beat inside-the-US-terrorists before they can strike. This is a great and better step than what we've had previous. And, it is clear from reading various reports -- these "US-domiciled-terrorists" are indeed being flushed out in advance of assault, mayhem, and murder.
My point being? The "old" CIA was unworkable. And yet it demanded more powers immediately after 9-11. It was too late, for that plan as laid out, then. And like the scorned-woman, many in the CIA/intel net sought personal revenge for the slight to their "intel". Therefore, the leaks.
And this too, Under Porter Goss, is being addressed.
What else have you to say, Joe Wilson?
Bump for later!
I believe he thinks he has.
Just another example of why pubbies are good at getting elected put poor at governing. They do not understand the propaganda/information side of the governing equation.
RATs do.
He's right.
This is a terrific article. thanks for posting.
Truly, of marvel to me, is to witness the Cindy Sheehan cabal of the usual "interventionists" casting aspersions upon "intervention" of a more primary order -- survival and safety of many people. The Lefties are the hugest fans of .. "battered women's shelters'" "child abuse intervention".."drug abuse intervention".. not to mention their allfavorite -- banning smoking everywhere they can as a means to "intervention" in an individual's life. And yet, in classic "both lobes not working together" style, rail against "intervention" of a much, much larger order in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nay, in this instance, the liberals aid and abet the "batterers".
The new mantra of the left should be clear, by now, IMHO:
We are Against Domestic Violence" but for "International Violence" - since the liberals would indeed speak in quiet corners about Saddam's abuse of WOMEN in Iraq; but yet supported him for the "international" violence he was trafficking in.
The liberals never went and did a "crawford" in Iraq on behalf of those being domestically "abused" and "violated" in Iraq (and Afghanistan). Obviously, they had to know what Saddam was doing on the "global" levels.
OOh! Brilliantly and scathingly put!
I will have to disagree with you about one thing. The circumstances surrounding the relationship between Iraq and AQ is not circumstantial. Far from it. It's rock solid.
And it was detailed going back to the 90's when the MSM wrote frequently about the world's alarm at the growing relationship between Iraq and AQ.
And since we got to Iraq, we have found so much more information to absolutely solidly confirm the long standing relationship.
Facts are available here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1327993/posts
Effectively dealing with the Japanese in the Pacific didn't occur until after Guadalcanal. There was little knowledge of their fanaticism and how it could be used against them.
By the time Guadalcanal was 'secured'...a Marine could tell the 'stink-difference' between an American or Japanese turd, lying in the jungle.
Certainly, I do understand Mr. Hitchens' sentiments in this regard. However, it cannot be done this way, IMHO.
That Mr. Hitchens has made it clear, and that many others have made it clear should, in a real world, be sufficient. The quarterback never makes so obvious that which his free-choice players must do.
Clearly, President Bush is not at all against the freedom of authors, and thinkers, and pundits, and media to make or break the point(s). And in so doing, might the free people of America make choices as to whom they might read or listen to, and whom they choose not to. And these choices must not be legislated, as they appear to be in so many classrooms around the US in re "pub ed curriculum". No, the President offers choice and a large room for free people to decide for themselves. Obviously, President Bush supports the free market on many, many levels. That his opponents continue to make trouble, to obscure, lie and obfuscate facts is having quite an impression upon the free people -- not just in the US - but around the world -- and in my own humble opinion -- what is he saying? "You get to decide what kind of world you wish to live in."
It really is, freedom, up to each of us.
We have The Connection by Stephen Hayes, and the footnotes of the 9/11 report.
You and I know what facts have been found, and what they imply.
Circumstantial evidence is evidence that points to a conclusion. You have to recite a list of things to "prove" the Saddam-AQ connection. And everything on the list is refutable by the defense attorneys in the MSM.
You don't have to convince me. We knew in 1992 just by our knowledge of human nature that Saddam was going to want revenge for Gulf War I and was going to help terrorists attack the WTC and Washington, D.C.
State in one sentence for me one piece of information (hard fact) that will convince a high school drop out that Saddam was aiding and abetting al Qaida to attack the World Trade Center.
That is the challenge.
We didn't find the atomic bomb plant or the anthrax plant that would have convinced our high school drop out that the Iraq War was justified.
And because our first claim was not proved, our next claim has to be even more rock solid before it is trotted out in all its glory.
I have incredible and growing confidence in the US military, except for the Generals, they don't impress me...too PC.
We need a Grant, a Sherman, or a Patton, even a Lee or a Jackson...
Someone has to get the White House/Pentagon PR effort in full gear. I'd like to see the President call out the MSM. If he's afraid they'd be even more hostile, I don't they can get anymore hostile. I think they smell weakness, send them a calling card.
ping for later
This strikes as the Powell WC wing of the pentagon and state against the Rummy and rice bolton wing.
Crying same that the people charged with the defense and putting forth the interests of the United States are at each others throats.
Ah for the days of FDR when he is attacked goes after the secondary target, Will this country ever learn that if we don't unit the McClellans and Stenson's come to the top As Oppose to the Grants and the other side of the Roosevelt family.
That's a good post and I'm not trying to be argumentative.
I see the left raise the bar time and time again and we (Republicans) fall for it.
Since the day after 9/11, the president said we would go after, in various ways, those who harbor, fund and work with the terrorists.
We know that Iraq harbored and worked with AQ. That IS rock solid evidence.
So now the left has raised the bar that we have to have evidence that Iraq worked with AQ to conduct the 9/11 attacks. There is circumstantial evidence to support that Iraq did help out, but you are correct, it is only circumstantial evidence.
Your are correct. What Hitchens seems to say is that the Admin needs compensate for the very anti-American leftist press and push to the front the points he made. I agree the Admin has stated the truth but not in a way that can get around the anti-Bush press.
ttt to read later thanks
you are definitely correct on that point. The only problem is that the MSM most important task is to keep that fact from being widely known.
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