Bending the Third Rail
Because We Should, We Can, We Do
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Delusions
Is Bush so absolutely delusional about Iraq that he shot himself in the foot?:
WASHINGTON - The war in Iraq has become a "cause celebre" for Islamic extremists, breeding deep resentment of the U.S. that probably will get worse before it gets better, federal intelligence analysts conclude in a report at odds with President Bush's portrayal of a world growing safer.

In the bleak report, declassified and released Tuesday on Bush's orders, the nation's most veteran analysts conclude that despite serious damage to the leadership of al-Qaida, the threat from Islamic extremists has spread both in numbers and in geographic reach.

Bush and his top advisers have said the formerly classified assessment of global terrorism supported their arguments that the world is safer because of the war. But more than three pages of stark judgments warning about the spread of terrorism contrasted with the administration's glass-half-full declarations.
The idiot in chief swaggered out to a press conference today to lecture the press about using the NIE for political purposes. In a "gotcha" kind of moment, he released the NIE in question as a vindication of his administration. But, correct me if I'm wrong, it looks like the NIE is not much of a vindication, but rather proof that the war in Iraq is FUBAR?

Maybe Karl has the flu or something and is out.

UPDATE: Here's the key graf that Bush thinks makes his case:
The Iraq conflict has become the "cause celebre" for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of US involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement. Should jihadists leaving Iraq perceive themselves, and be perceived, to have failed, we judge fewer fighters will be inspired to carry on the fight.
Duh! If the insurgents lose, people will think they lost! But there's one itty bitty problem. They're not losing, nor are they going to lose unless there are half a million American troops in Iraq. And even then, it's questionable the dissolution of Iraq can be avoided.

Of course Bush thinks it makes the case for "staying the course". But also of course, the longer we stay the more we are losing which makes the "cause celebre" larger, creating more terraists. Sounds like a Catch 22 to me. Charlie Gibson, on ABC News tonight, asks the key question, "why would the President declassify this report?". The nuance of how this helps Bush had to be explained to Gibson .... not a good sign for how this spins out.
Written at 5:19 PM by Greyhair.
1 comments
1 Comments:
Blogger mikevotes said...
Yes, he has.

I think they released THIS SECTION because they just wanted to tear the bandaid off all at once. That original NYTimes leak was obviously political, and looking ahead, the administration would never know when the next drip,drip, drip would come out. So I think they just decided to get it all out and take the hit now rather than weekly stories up to the election.

And I think this thing is HUGE politically. It completely reframes the debate over Iraq, coupled with the Clinton interview, it undermines the GOP claim to security dominance. It has put Iraq back into the center of the campaign in the second worst possible light.

Mike
6:59 PM  
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