Semi-OT--Biking To Nowhere

"Bill C" wrote in message
oups.com...

Bill C wrote:
B. Lafferty wrote:
August 17, 2005
Biking Toward Nowhere
By MAUREEN DOWD
How could President Bush be cavorting around on a long vacation with
American troops struggling with a spiraling crisis in Iraq?

Wasn't he worried that his vacation activities might send a frivolous
signal
at a time when he had put so many young Americans in harm's way?

"I'm determined that life goes on," Mr. Bush said stubbornly.

That wasn't the son, believe it or not. It was the father - 15 years
ago. I
was in Kennebunkport then to cover the first President Bush's frenetic
attempts to relax while reporters were pressing him about how he could
be
taking a month to play around when he had started sending American
troops to
the Persian Gulf only three days before.

On Saturday, the current President Bush was pressed about how he could
be
taking five weeks to ride bikes and nap and fish and clear brush even
though
his occupation of Iraq had become a fiasco. "I think it's also
important for
me to go on with my life," W. said, "to keep a balanced life."

Pressed about how he could ride his bike while refusing to see a
grieving
mom of a dead soldier who's camped outside his ranch, he added: "So I'm
mindful of what goes on around me. On the other hand, I'm also mindful
that
I've got a life to live and will do so."

Ah, the insensitivity of reporters who ask the President Bushes how
they can
expect to deal with Middle East fighting while they're off fishing.

The first President Bush told us that he kept a telephone in his golf
cart
and his cigarette boat so he could easily stay on top of Saddam's
invasion
of Kuwait. But at least he seemed worried that he was sending the wrong
signal, as his boating and golfing was juxtaposed on the news with
footage
of the frightened families of troops leaving for the Middle East.

"I just don't like taking questions on serious matters on my vacation,"
the
usually good-natured Bush senior barked at reporters on the golf
course. "So
I hope you'll understand if I, when I'm recreating, will recreate." His
hot-tempered oldest son, who was golfing with his father that day, was
even
more irritated. "Hey! Hey!" W. snapped at reporters asking questions on
the
first tee. "Can't you wait until we finish hitting, at least?"

Junior always had his priorities straight.

As W.'s neighbors get in scraps with the antiwar forces coalescing
around
the ranch; as the Pentagon tries to rustle up updated armor for our
soldiers, who are still sitting ducks in the third year of the war; as
the
Iraqi police we train keep getting blown up by terrorists, who come
right
back every time U.S. troops beat them up; as Shiites working on the
Iraqi
constitution conspire with Iran about turning Iraq into an Islamic
state
that represses women; and as Iraq hurtles toward a possible civil war,
W.
seems far more oblivious than his father was with his Persian Gulf
crisis.

This president is in a truly scary place in Iraq. Americans can't get
out,
or they risk turning the country into a terrorist haven that will make
the
old Afghanistan look like Cipriani's. Yet his war, which has not
accomplished any of its purposes, swallows ever more American lives and
inflames ever more Muslim hearts as W. reads a book about the history
of
salt and looks forward to his biking date with Lance Armstrong on
Saturday.

The son wanted to go into Iraq to best his daddy in the history books,
by
finishing what Bush senior started. He swept aside the warnings of
Brent
Scowcroft and Colin Powell and didn't bother to ask his father's
advice. Now
he is caught in the very trap his father said he feared: that America
would
get bogged down as "an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land,"
facing a
possibly "barren" outcome.

It turns out that the people of Iraq have ethnic and religious
identities,
not a national identity. Shiites and Kurds want to suppress the Sunnis
who
once repressed them and break off into their own states, smashing the
Bush
model kitchen of democracy.

At long last, a senior Bush official admits that administration
officials
can no longer cling to their own version of reality. "We are in a
process of
absorbing the factors of the situation we're in and shedding the
unreality
that dominated at the beginning," the official told The Washington
Post.

They had better start absorbing and shedding a lot faster, before many
more
American kids die to create a pawn of Iran. And they had better tell
the Boy
in the Bubble, who continues to dwell in delusion, hailing the fights
and
delays on the Iraqi constitution as "a tribute to democracy."

The president's pedaling as fast as he can, but he's going nowhere.

E-mail:
Brian, what did Clinton do in all the time after he was given these
reports?
http://www.judicialwatch.org/5504.shtml

Clinton State Department Documents Outlined bin Laden Threat to the
United States in Summer 1996

"Top Secret" Analysis Warned Clinton Administration

"[bin Laden] has Wherewithal to Strike U.S. Interests"

Are you NOW going to hammer Clinton for his complete and total
failures too? How about the rest of you?
Bill C

It's pretty clear that the intelligence agencies didn't fail here. The
Clinton administration was on vacation for 4 years and did NOTHING,
including Richard Clark. Yet tons of you continue to solely blame Bush
and glorify Clinton. Doesn't work.
If anything Bush was guilty of continuing Clinton's lack of action
when he should've known better. It's not the Bush policy and inaction
that led to 9/11, but his continuation of the Clinton policy that did.
Bill C


We'll have to disagree. But these aren't the issues that Dowd raises here.
And BTW, she was quite scathing about Bill when he was Prez.

"Bill C" wrote in message
oups.com...

B. Lafferty wrote:
August 17, 2005
Biking Toward Nowhere
By MAUREEN DOWD
How could President Bush be cavorting around on a long vacation with
American troops struggling with a spiraling crisis in Iraq?

Wasn't he worried that his vacation activities might send a frivolous
signal
at a time when he had put so many young Americans in harm's way?

"I'm determined that life goes on," Mr. Bush said stubbornly.

That wasn't the son, believe it or not. It was the father - 15 years ago.
I
was in Kennebunkport then to cover the first President Bush's frenetic
attempts to relax while reporters were pressing him about how he could be
taking a month to play around when he had started sending American troops
to
the Persian Gulf only three days before.

On Saturday, the current President Bush was pressed about how he could be
taking five weeks to ride bikes and nap and fish and clear brush even
though
his occupation of Iraq had become a fiasco. "I think it's also important
for
me to go on with my life," W. said, "to keep a balanced life."

Pressed about how he could ride his bike while refusing to see a grieving
mom of a dead soldier who's camped outside his ranch, he added: "So I'm
mindful of what goes on around me. On the other hand, I'm also mindful
that
I've got a life to live and will do so."

Ah, the insensitivity of reporters who ask the President Bushes how they
can
expect to deal with Middle East fighting while they're off fishing.

The first President Bush told us that he kept a telephone in his golf
cart
and his cigarette boat so he could easily stay on top of Saddam's
invasion
of Kuwait. But at least he seemed worried that he was sending the wrong
signal, as his boating and golfing was juxtaposed on the news with
footage
of the frightened families of troops leaving for the Middle East.

"I just don't like taking questions on serious matters on my vacation,"
the
usually good-natured Bush senior barked at reporters on the golf course.
"So
I hope you'll understand if I, when I'm recreating, will recreate." His
hot-tempered oldest son, who was golfing with his father that day, was
even
more irritated. "Hey! Hey!" W. snapped at reporters asking questions on
the
first tee. "Can't you wait until we finish hitting, at least?"

Junior always had his priorities straight.

As W.'s neighbors get in scraps with the antiwar forces coalescing around
the ranch; as the Pentagon tries to rustle up updated armor for our
soldiers, who are still sitting ducks in the third year of the war; as
the
Iraqi police we train keep getting blown up by terrorists, who come right
back every time U.S. troops beat them up; as Shiites working on the Iraqi
constitution conspire with Iran about turning Iraq into an Islamic state
that represses women; and as Iraq hurtles toward a possible civil war, W.
seems far more oblivious than his father was with his Persian Gulf
crisis.

This president is in a truly scary place in Iraq. Americans can't get
out,
or they risk turning the country into a terrorist haven that will make
the
old Afghanistan look like Cipriani's. Yet his war, which has not
accomplished any of its purposes, swallows ever more American lives and
inflames ever more Muslim hearts as W. reads a book about the history of
salt and looks forward to his biking date with Lance Armstrong on
Saturday.

The son wanted to go into Iraq to best his daddy in the history books, by
finishing what Bush senior started. He swept aside the warnings of Brent
Scowcroft and Colin Powell and didn't bother to ask his father's advice.
Now
he is caught in the very trap his father said he feared: that America
would
get bogged down as "an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land,"
facing a
possibly "barren" outcome.

It turns out that the people of Iraq have ethnic and religious
identities,
not a national identity. Shiites and Kurds want to suppress the Sunnis
who
once repressed them and break off into their own states, smashing the
Bush
model kitchen of democracy.

At long last, a senior Bush official admits that administration officials
can no longer cling to their own version of reality. "We are in a process
of
absorbing the factors of the situation we're in and shedding the
unreality
that dominated at the beginning," the official told The Washington Post.

They had better start absorbing and shedding a lot faster, before many
more
American kids die to create a pawn of Iran. And they had better tell the
Boy
in the Bubble, who continues to dwell in delusion, hailing the fights and
delays on the Iraqi constitution as "a tribute to democracy."

The president's pedaling as fast as he can, but he's going nowhere.

E-mail:
Brian, what did Clinton do in all the time after he was given these
reports?
http://www.judicialwatch.org/5504.shtml

Clinton State Department Documents Outlined bin Laden Threat to the
United States in Summer 1996

"Top Secret" Analysis Warned Clinton Administration

"[bin Laden] has Wherewithal to Strike U.S. Interests"

Are you NOW going to hammer Clinton for his complete and total
failures too? How about the rest of you?
Bill C


It's a bit different than your presentation.

B. Lafferty wrote:
"Bill C" wrote in message
oups.com...

B. Lafferty wrote:
August 17, 2005
Biking Toward Nowhere
By MAUREEN DOWD
How could President Bush be cavorting around on a long vacation with
American troops struggling with a spiraling crisis in Iraq?

Wasn't he worried that his vacation activities might send a frivolous
signal
at a time when he had put so many young Americans in harm's way?

"I'm determined that life goes on," Mr. Bush said stubbornly.

That wasn't the son, believe it or not. It was the father - 15 years ago.
I
was in Kennebunkport then to cover the first President Bush's frenetic
attempts to relax while reporters were pressing him about how he could be
taking a month to play around when he had started sending American troops
to
the Persian Gulf only three days before.

On Saturday, the current President Bush was pressed about how he could be
taking five weeks to ride bikes and nap and fish and clear brush even
though
his occupation of Iraq had become a fiasco. "I think it's also important
for
me to go on with my life," W. said, "to keep a balanced life."

Pressed about how he could ride his bike while refusing to see a grieving
mom of a dead soldier who's camped outside his ranch, he added: "So I'm
mindful of what goes on around me. On the other hand, I'm also mindful
that
I've got a life to live and will do so."

Ah, the insensitivity of reporters who ask the President Bushes how they
can
expect to deal with Middle East fighting while they're off fishing.

The first President Bush told us that he kept a telephone in his golf
cart
and his cigarette boat so he could easily stay on top of Saddam's
invasion
of Kuwait. But at least he seemed worried that he was sending the wrong
signal, as his boating and golfing was juxtaposed on the news with
footage
of the frightened families of troops leaving for the Middle East.

"I just don't like taking questions on serious matters on my vacation,"
the
usually good-natured Bush senior barked at reporters on the golf course.
"So
I hope you'll understand if I, when I'm recreating, will recreate." His
hot-tempered oldest son, who was golfing with his father that day, was
even
more irritated. "Hey! Hey!" W. snapped at reporters asking questions on
the
first tee. "Can't you wait until we finish hitting, at least?"

Junior always had his priorities straight.

As W.'s neighbors get in scraps with the antiwar forces coalescing around
the ranch; as the Pentagon tries to rustle up updated armor for our
soldiers, who are still sitting ducks in the third year of the war; as
the
Iraqi police we train keep getting blown up by terrorists, who come right
back every time U.S. troops beat them up; as Shiites working on the Iraqi
constitution conspire with Iran about turning Iraq into an Islamic state
that represses women; and as Iraq hurtles toward a possible civil war, W.
seems far more oblivious than his father was with his Persian Gulf
crisis.

This president is in a truly scary place in Iraq. Americans can't get
out,
or they risk turning the country into a terrorist haven that will make
the
old Afghanistan look like Cipriani's. Yet his war, which has not
accomplished any of its purposes, swallows ever more American lives and
inflames ever more Muslim hearts as W. reads a book about the history of
salt and looks forward to his biking date with Lance Armstrong on
Saturday.

The son wanted to go into Iraq to best his daddy in the history books, by
finishing what Bush senior started. He swept aside the warnings of Brent
Scowcroft and Colin Powell and didn't bother to ask his father's advice.
Now
he is caught in the very trap his father said he feared: that America
would
get bogged down as "an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land,"
facing a
possibly "barren" outcome.

It turns out that the people of Iraq have ethnic and religious
identities,
not a national identity. Shiites and Kurds want to suppress the Sunnis
who
once repressed them and break off into their own states, smashing the
Bush
model kitchen of democracy.

At long last, a senior Bush official admits that administration officials
can no longer cling to their own version of reality. "We are in a process
of
absorbing the factors of the situation we're in and shedding the
unreality
that dominated at the beginning," the official told The Washington Post.

They had better start absorbing and shedding a lot faster, before many
more
American kids die to create a pawn of Iran. And they had better tell the
Boy
in the Bubble, who continues to dwell in delusion, hailing the fights and
delays on the Iraqi constitution as "a tribute to democracy."

The president's pedaling as fast as he can, but he's going nowhere.

E-mail:
Brian, what did Clinton do in all the time after he was given these
reports?
http://www.judicialwatch.org/5504.shtml

Clinton State Department Documents Outlined bin Laden Threat to the
United States in Summer 1996

"Top Secret" Analysis Warned Clinton Administration

"[bin Laden] has Wherewithal to Strike U.S. Interests"

Are you NOW going to hammer Clinton for his complete and total
failures too? How about the rest of you?
Bill C


It's a bit different than your presentation.
Brian even the NYT doesn't think so. They couldn't get their calls
returned.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/17/in...a/17osama.html

Quoted since they have a registration:

Two years after the State Department's warning, with Mr. bin Laden
firmly entrenched in Afghanistan and overseeing terrorist training and
financing operations, Al Qaeda struck two American embassies in East
Africa, leading to failed military attempts by the Clinton
administration to capture or kill him in Afghanistan. Three years
later, on Sept. 11, 2001, Al Qaeda struck the World Trade Center and
the Pentagon in an operation overseen from the base in Afghanistan.

Critics of the Clinton administration have accused it of ignoring the
threat posed by Mr. bin Laden in the mid-1990's while he was still in
Sudan, and they point to claims by some Sudanese officials that they
offered to turn him over to the Americans before ultimately expelling
him in 1996 under international pressure. But Clinton administration
diplomats have adamantly denied that they received such an offer, and
the Sept. 11 commission concluded in one of its staff reports that it
had "not found any reliable evidence to support the Sudanese claim."

The newly declassified documents do not directly address the question
of whether Sudan ever offered to turn over Mr. bin Laden. But the
documents go well beyond previous news and historical accounts in
detailing the Clinton administration's active monitoring of Mr. bin
Laden's movements and the realization that his move to Afghanistan
could make him an even greater national security threat.

Several former senior officials in the Clinton administration did not
return phone calls this week seeking comment on the newly declassified
documents.

How can you pretend that they actually did more than Bush prior to
9/11. Both did nothing, but only Bush is getting hammered for it.
Bill C

Bill C wrote:
Bill C wrote:

B. Lafferty wrote:

August 17, 2005
Biking Toward Nowhere
By MAUREEN DOWD
How could President Bush be cavorting around on a long vacation with
American troops struggling with a spiraling crisis in Iraq?

Wasn't he worried that his vacation activities might send a frivolous signal
at a time when he had put so many young Americans in harm's way?

"I'm determined that life goes on," Mr. Bush said stubbornly.

That wasn't the son, believe it or not. It was the father - 15 years ago. I
was in Kennebunkport then to cover the first President Bush's frenetic
attempts to relax while reporters were pressing him about how he could be
taking a month to play around when he had started sending American troops to
the Persian Gulf only three days before.

On Saturday, the current President Bush was pressed about how he could be
taking five weeks to ride bikes and nap and fish and clear brush even though
his occupation of Iraq had become a fiasco. "I think it's also important for
me to go on with my life," W. said, "to keep a balanced life."

Pressed about how he could ride his bike while refusing to see a grieving
mom of a dead soldier who's camped outside his ranch, he added: "So I'm
mindful of what goes on around me. On the other hand, I'm also mindful that
I've got a life to live and will do so."

Ah, the insensitivity of reporters who ask the President Bushes how they can
expect to deal with Middle East fighting while they're off fishing.

The first President Bush told us that he kept a telephone in his golf cart
and his cigarette boat so he could easily stay on top of Saddam's invasion
of Kuwait. But at least he seemed worried that he was sending the wrong
signal, as his boating and golfing was juxtaposed on the news with footage
of the frightened families of troops leaving for the Middle East.

"I just don't like taking questions on serious matters on my vacation," the
usually good-natured Bush senior barked at reporters on the golf course. "So
I hope you'll understand if I, when I'm recreating, will recreate." His
hot-tempered oldest son, who was golfing with his father that day, was even
more irritated. "Hey! Hey!" W. snapped at reporters asking questions on the
first tee. "Can't you wait until we finish hitting, at least?"

Junior always had his priorities straight.

As W.'s neighbors get in scraps with the antiwar forces coalescing around
the ranch; as the Pentagon tries to rustle up updated armor for our
soldiers, who are still sitting ducks in the third year of the war; as the
Iraqi police we train keep getting blown up by terrorists, who come right
back every time U.S. troops beat them up; as Shiites working on the Iraqi
constitution conspire with Iran about turning Iraq into an Islamic state
that represses women; and as Iraq hurtles toward a possible civil war, W.
seems far more oblivious than his father was with his Persian Gulf crisis.

This president is in a truly scary place in Iraq. Americans can't get out,
or they risk turning the country into a terrorist haven that will make the
old Afghanistan look like Cipriani's. Yet his war, which has not
accomplished any of its purposes, swallows ever more American lives and
inflames ever more Muslim hearts as W. reads a book about the history of
salt and looks forward to his biking date with Lance Armstrong on Saturday.

The son wanted to go into Iraq to best his daddy in the history books, by
finishing what Bush senior started. He swept aside the warnings of Brent
Scowcroft and Colin Powell and didn't bother to ask his father's advice. Now
he is caught in the very trap his father said he feared: that America would
get bogged down as "an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land," facing a
possibly "barren" outcome.

It turns out that the people of Iraq have ethnic and religious identities,
not a national identity. Shiites and Kurds want to suppress the Sunnis who
once repressed them and break off into their own states, smashing the Bush
model kitchen of democracy.

At long last, a senior Bush official admits that administration officials
can no longer cling to their own version of reality. "We are in a process of
absorbing the factors of the situation we're in and shedding the unreality
that dominated at the beginning," the official told The Washington Post.

They had better start absorbing and shedding a lot faster, before many more
American kids die to create a pawn of Iran. And they had better tell the Boy
in the Bubble, who continues to dwell in delusion, hailing the fights and
delays on the Iraqi constitution as "a tribute to democracy."

The president's pedaling as fast as he can, but he's going nowhere.

E-mail:

Brian, what did Clinton do in all the time after he was given these
reports?
http://www.judicialwatch.org/5504.shtml

Clinton State Department Documents Outlined bin Laden Threat to the
United States in Summer 1996

"Top Secret" Analysis Warned Clinton Administration

"[bin Laden] has Wherewithal to Strike U.S. Interests"

Are you NOW going to hammer Clinton for his complete and total
failures too? How about the rest of you?
Bill C


It's pretty clear that the intelligence agencies didn't fail here. The
Clinton administration was on vacation for 4 years and did NOTHING,
including Richard Clark. Yet tons of you continue to solely blame Bush
and glorify Clinton. Doesn't work.
If anything Bush was guilty of continuing Clinton's lack of action
when he should've known better. It's not the Bush policy and inaction
that led to 9/11, but his continuation of the Clinton policy that did.
Bill C


At the risk of being non-partisan here, I will point out that terrorist
attacks continue to occur with great regularity in Israel. I don't
think it's because the Israelis are soft in pursuing terrorists. I
think it's because terrorism is really, really hard to stop.

Donald Munro wrote:
pacqueman wrote:

I'm fine with GW's mtn biking as long as he wears a helmet. Maybe he
could get a set of the new and improved ceramic body army too.


Tim Lines wrote:

Hitler never wore a bicycle helmet. Idi Amin never wore a bicycle
helmet. The Ayatollah Khomeini? Nope, not him either. President Bush
is not like them. He stands for freedom!


So by your logic:
Bush wears a helmet * Everyone who isn't with Bush's war on terrorism is
against Bush - Everyone who opposes wearing helmets is against Bush -
Everyone who opposes helmets in The Triki Beltran thread is a terrorist

So when is the Dept. of Homeland Security going to arrest Kunich ?



I said "he stands for freedom". Kunich still has a chance to avoid
arrest if he has saddle sores. Otherwise, it's Gitmo for sure.

Bill C wrote:

Brian, what did Clinton do in all the time after he was given these
reports? http://www.judicialwatch.org/5504.shtml

http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report_Ch4.pdf

Tim Lines wrote:
Hitler never wore a bicycle helmet. Idi Amin never wore a bicycle
helmet. The Ayatollah Khomeini? Nope, not him either. President Bush
is not like them. He stands for freedom!

Donald Munro wrote:
So by your logic:
Bush wears a helmet * Everyone who isn't with Bush's war on terrorism is
against Bush - Everyone who opposes wearing helmets is against Bush -
Everyone who opposes helmets in The Triki Beltran thread is a terrorist

So when is the Dept. of Homeland Security going to arrest Kunich ?

Tim Lines wrote:
I said "he stands for freedom". Kunich still has a chance to avoid
arrest if he has saddle sores. Otherwise, it's Gitmo for sure.

Being a saddle sore probably means he is safe then.

Robert Chung wrote:
Bill C wrote:

Brian, what did Clinton do in all the time after he was given these
reports? http://www.judicialwatch.org/5504.shtml

http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report_Ch4.pdf
Thanks it was good to read through that again. It just confirms the
fact that the Clinton administration, did nothing even remotely
effective, mostly for fear of offending people and creating a backlash.

I think we would've been perfectly justified for being more agressive,
especially after the embassy bombings, but as the report points out
quite clearly there was a large backlash here at home against even the
cruise missile strikes, which did nothing, as too strong a response.
It was a different country before 9/11 and we were still dancing with
the anti-assasination law that was passed in the 70s which was why we
"didn't" try to kill Khadafi and the Bin-Laden operation was being
really limited to diplomatic and legal options which had zero chance of
success given his money which we never cut off, and a home country that
was working with and protecting him.
There were reasons why neither President did much of anything about Al
Qaida before 9/11 and most of them go straight back to the Church
Commission, but it needs to be clear that it was both administrations
because those are the facts.
Bill C

Tim Lines wrote:
Bill C wrote:
Bill C wrote:

B. Lafferty wrote:

August 17, 2005
Biking Toward Nowhere
By MAUREEN DOWD
How could President Bush be cavorting around on a long vacation with
American troops struggling with a spiraling crisis in Iraq?

Wasn't he worried that his vacation activities might send a frivolous signal
at a time when he had put so many young Americans in harm's way?

"I'm determined that life goes on," Mr. Bush said stubbornly.

That wasn't the son, believe it or not. It was the father - 15 years ago. I
was in Kennebunkport then to cover the first President Bush's frenetic
attempts to relax while reporters were pressing him about how he could be
taking a month to play around when he had started sending American troops to
the Persian Gulf only three days before.

On Saturday, the current President Bush was pressed about how he could be
taking five weeks to ride bikes and nap and fish and clear brush even though
his occupation of Iraq had become a fiasco. "I think it's also important for
me to go on with my life," W. said, "to keep a balanced life."

Pressed about how he could ride his bike while refusing to see a grieving
mom of a dead soldier who's camped outside his ranch, he added: "So I'm
mindful of what goes on around me. On the other hand, I'm also mindful that
I've got a life to live and will do so."

Ah, the insensitivity of reporters who ask the President Bushes how they can
expect to deal with Middle East fighting while they're off fishing.

The first President Bush told us that he kept a telephone in his golf cart
and his cigarette boat so he could easily stay on top of Saddam's invasion
of Kuwait. But at least he seemed worried that he was sending the wrong
signal, as his boating and golfing was juxtaposed on the news with footage
of the frightened families of troops leaving for the Middle East.

"I just don't like taking questions on serious matters on my vacation," the
usually good-natured Bush senior barked at reporters on the golf course. "So
I hope you'll understand if I, when I'm recreating, will recreate." His
hot-tempered oldest son, who was golfing with his father that day, was even
more irritated. "Hey! Hey!" W. snapped at reporters asking questions on the
first tee. "Can't you wait until we finish hitting, at least?"

Junior always had his priorities straight.

As W.'s neighbors get in scraps with the antiwar forces coalescing around
the ranch; as the Pentagon tries to rustle up updated armor for our
soldiers, who are still sitting ducks in the third year of the war; as the
Iraqi police we train keep getting blown up by terrorists, who come right
back every time U.S. troops beat them up; as Shiites working on the Iraqi
constitution conspire with Iran about turning Iraq into an Islamic state
that represses women; and as Iraq hurtles toward a possible civil war, W.
seems far more oblivious than his father was with his Persian Gulf crisis.

This president is in a truly scary place in Iraq. Americans can't get out,
or they risk turning the country into a terrorist haven that will make the
old Afghanistan look like Cipriani's. Yet his war, which has not
accomplished any of its purposes, swallows ever more American lives and
inflames ever more Muslim hearts as W. reads a book about the history of
salt and looks forward to his biking date with Lance Armstrong on Saturday.

The son wanted to go into Iraq to best his daddy in the history books, by
finishing what Bush senior started. He swept aside the warnings of Brent
Scowcroft and Colin Powell and didn't bother to ask his father's advice. Now
he is caught in the very trap his father said he feared: that America would
get bogged down as "an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land," facing a
possibly "barren" outcome.

It turns out that the people of Iraq have ethnic and religious identities,
not a national identity. Shiites and Kurds want to suppress the Sunnis who
once repressed them and break off into their own states, smashing the Bush
model kitchen of democracy.

At long last, a senior Bush official admits that administration officials
can no longer cling to their own version of reality. "We are in a process of
absorbing the factors of the situation we're in and shedding the unreality
that dominated at the beginning," the official told The Washington Post.

They had better start absorbing and shedding a lot faster, before many more
American kids die to create a pawn of Iran. And they had better tell the Boy
in the Bubble, who continues to dwell in delusion, hailing the fights and
delays on the Iraqi constitution as "a tribute to democracy."

The president's pedaling as fast as he can, but he's going nowhere.

E-mail:

Brian, what did Clinton do in all the time after he was given these
reports?
http://www.judicialwatch.org/5504.shtml

Clinton State Department Documents Outlined bin Laden Threat to the
United States in Summer 1996

"Top Secret" Analysis Warned Clinton Administration

"[bin Laden] has Wherewithal to Strike U.S. Interests"

Are you NOW going to hammer Clinton for his complete and total
failures too? How about the rest of you?
Bill C


It's pretty clear that the intelligence agencies didn't fail here. The
Clinton administration was on vacation for 4 years and did NOTHING,
including Richard Clark. Yet tons of you continue to solely blame Bush
and glorify Clinton. Doesn't work.
If anything Bush was guilty of continuing Clinton's lack of action
when he should've known better. It's not the Bush policy and inaction
that led to 9/11, but his continuation of the Clinton policy that did.
Bill C


At the risk of being non-partisan here, I will point out that terrorist
attacks continue to occur with great regularity in Israel. I don't
think it's because the Israelis are soft in pursuing terrorists. I
think it's because terrorism is really, really hard to stop.
Tim, I'm not being partisan either. I just want allthe facts on the
table clearly. We're talking about a clearly identified and monitored
single threat in this case that had been covered for years.
I can make a really good case as to WHY neither administration did
anything concrete, and do make some of it farther down the thread, but
the reality is that they didn't do anything concrete, and that Clinton
was hammered for the cruise missile attacks which IMO were a politcally
motivated compromise which failed miserably as those so often do. After
that there wasn't a hell of a lot of a chance he was going to take a
more agressive targeted approach, and Bush sure as hell couldn't put
one in order, while setting up a new administration, between Jan 20 and
Sep 11. The bad blood and legal batlles that crippled the transition
made the problem even worse since people did not play well together.
Lot's of reasons that neither President took more action, but once
again, almost noone is making that case as that is the least
politically correct thing to be doing. The American people and Congress
don't want to hear that they tied the Presidents' hands which made it
almost impossible to prevent 9/11.
Bill C

Bill C wrote:

There were reasons why neither President did much of anything about Al
Qaida before 9/11 [...] but it needs to be clear that it was both
administrations

In every other thing it did during its first few months, the guiding
principle of this administration was: if Clinton did it, it must be bad,
so we'll do it the other way. If the previous administration had done
nothing about terrorism, this administration would have made it their top
priority.