Opinion: George W. Bush and the Fancy Theorists

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Those fancy Democrats are all wrong.

George W. Bush and the Fancy Theorists

J. Peter Mulhern
1 hour, 48 minutes ago

Last week the press, discreet as always, published a nugget mined from the top secret National Intelligence Estimate. The banner headlines suggested that our intelligence experts believe the war in Iraq to be an impediment in the "war on terror" because it stimulates al Qaeda's recruitment.

Democrats pounced.

They seemed to believe that they had finally discovered their Holy Grail. At last they had official sanction for the view that fighting in Iraq hurts our cause. Maybe now they could oppose the war without alienating an electorate that rarely votes for poltroons during a war.

The excitement didn't last long. George W. Bush shut the party down by declassifying the Key Judgments from the NIE. Now the world knows that the press got the story wrong. The NIE doesn't say that the war in Iraq is an impediment to our war on terror. It's like a palm reading, it doesn't really say anything at all.
....

Anybody who has ever experienced bureaucratic infighting will understand immediately what happened. Someone inserted the silly sentence about the Iraq conflict breeding resentment precisely so it could be wrenched out of context and leaked. That someone wanted to reinforce the Democrats' argument that they are fit to lead despite all their anti war foolishness.

Who is J. Peter Mulhern?

My only observation is that I didn't think you could get acid this good anymore.

[Jim__]

1. Getting it wrong.

The article contains this little section:

A sorry history of getting it wrong

The experts told President Roosevelt that Imperial Japan lacked the technology to attack Pearl Harbor. As Ronald Reagan took the oath of office the reigning intelligence consensus was that the Soviet Union would be with us always. That consensus hadn't changed even when George H. W. Bush was sworn in.

The experts told several presidents that "secular" Muslim leaders like Saddam Hussein would never cooperate with religious zealots like Osama Bin Laden. Some of those experts are still trying to defend that ludicrous miscalculation.

Last, but not least, remember the international intelligence consensus that Saddam was roosting atop a stockpile of WMDs.

Talk about getting it wrong.

Ronald Reagan took the oath of office the reigning intelligence consensus was that the Soviet Union would be with us always. That consensus hadn't changed even when George H. W. Bush was sworn in.

Horseshit. In 1976 the CIA concluded that due to the corruption of the Breshnev regime, the Soviet Union would collapse with the next 20 years. The Soviets recognized their own predicament which is why a reformer like Gorbachev became the leader.it was a desperate attempt to save themselves.

The experts told several presidents that "secular" Muslim leaders like Saddam Hussein would never cooperate with religious zealots like Osama Bin Laden. Some of those experts are still trying to defend that ludicrous miscalculation.

And this guy has evidence that Osama bin laden and Saddam Hussein cooperated?

Last, but not least, remember the international intelligence consensus that Saddam was roosting atop a stockpile of WMDs.

Actually I don't. The UN inspectors said they could not find any evidence that Saddam Hussein had any WMD. They said they hadn't ompletely eliminated the possibility yet; but they soon would. bush had to act before they could.

[lapfog_1]

2. A lawyer in the Washington D.C. area

and, apparently, a person with no grasp of facts, history, or anything other than his ideology that
"Bush is right, anyone who disagrees with him should be locked up"... a real wing-nut whackjob.

From another article... here is his rationale for going to war with Iraq:

"9/11 didn’t happen because a small group of terrorists decided to attack us. It happened because hundreds of millions of Muslims, particularly Arab Muslims, wanted it to happen. Osama bin Laden supplied what his culture demands. That culture has to learn to want something better. It must learn to respect us and to fear our anger. We couldn’t earn respect in the Arab world as long as we let Saddam play us for fools."