>>> A much better way to attack terrorists would be to tightly integrate the intelligence and police forces of the world and defeat them with information. Improve the futures of the regions that breed terrorists with an international effort, so that less of them would see glorious suicide preferable to what's ahead of them.<<<
JCP--Very great points!
Instead, Bush liberated the Afghani city of Kabul and calls what amounts to a citywide liberation campaign as a new nation government. But the reality is the greater Afghani countryside now is in the hands of the opium-growing warlords, all of whom were all too willing to do the bloody bidding of America. I mean why not? It's a free war won for them and they're back in business, what with the US bombing and all.
Yes, the Taliban and its once-sheltered Al Qaeda got pounded good, and fled into the Afghani/Pakistani/Kashmiri cavernous wild. However, reports are they're regrouping. And OBL and his number one are nowhere to be found. How come?
It's not far-fetched speculation at all to think that Bush could have and should have continued prioritizing the search for OBL, could have and should have beefed up and grown a greater intelligence network to finish the job. And, hey, some worldwide educational forums highlighting the differences between free nations and terrorists might not have been a bad call either.
Instead, Bush alternatively set his big guns on Saddam and his victims, the people of Iraq. The GOPwinger thinking must have been, "Hey, Reagan won two wars and served two terms, why couldn't Bush?"
Worse, it turns out the true WMD threat all along was Pakistan, our supposed ally against terrorism. Now not only is that bad intelligence, but it's bad interpretation of intelligence also. Imagine aligning with the nation most responsible for the spread of WMD in the effort to prevent WMD. Now that might have been a clever strategy had he known what he was doing--but Bush was clueless in this.
Then, of course, there's North Korea which has been steaming into a hotter and hotter boil all for want of a simple non-aggression pact with the US, this ever since Bush took office. Bush, hung up on Saddam, remarkably paid token attention to both the foremost or secondmost dangerous threats to America. The handle on all of this I think is yet to told.
I don't need to get into all of the wasteful spending and bad planning that went into taking Saddam out of the picture. But it is important to note that the political capital and respect the US lost in terms of diplomacy with the rest of the world won't be won back easily, as Bush ignored the wisdom of the rest of the world and moved forward with its hasty invasion of Iraq and tragic consequences now being felt.
Anyone think the world is today laughing in disgust at Bush and his buddy Blair? You bet!
I'm firm in my belief that Bush won't only go down as the most deceitful president in US history; he'll also go down as the dumbest! And there's nothing worse than a militaristic dumb leader with a dumb following behaving in a world deeply in need of the sensitivity of intelligence.
Oh, well. |
