The Prez’s National Security Pony

The Prez's National Security Pony

“If Al
Gore is going to be the voice of the Democrats on national security matters,
we welcome it,” White House press secretary Scott McClellan said in a swipe
at the Democrat, who lost the 2000 election to Bush only after the Supreme Court
intervened.
White
House Accuses Gore of Hypocrisy

Another “image vs. reality” moment. The prez's pony has a laugh on him.

Nothing like the Christians calling the lions losers. Ooooooh,
we're so frightened by the depth of the argument. Except in this case, the righteous
aren't right. They aren't even that righteous, at least not on the topic at
hand.

Of course, Republicans think any time any Democrat comes
out and blasts Bush's incompetent, wholly inept and dysfunctional leadership,
the prez can simply trot out his national security pony. Because that's what
the war on terror, Iraq, foreign policy and everything in between has become
for George W. Bush. Something the Administration can bring out to display so
all his critics will limp away in disgrace. Well, the national security pony is now having a laugh on him.

It's image versus reality time, my friends.

Currently, we're embroiled in the middle of Iraq with no clear
way out and no sure way forward. Yes, the Iraqis have had significant democratic
votes, with a permanent government being put in place. But even after ridding
the country of Saddam, getting that vote, we still cannot leave for fear that
Axis of Evil country #2 will take over.

Iran is in charge in the southern regions of Iraq, with the Sunni
triangle so bad that journalists can't operate, so we have no clue of just how
bad it is. The Kurds are happy and content with an undeclared Kurdistan, while
we await the nuclear reality of an enemy that has been neglected so that our
president could wage preemption, with the help of the “opposition”
party. But now that the Democrats have found out they were not only lied to but that their constituents were illegally spied upon, they're finally, at long last pushing back, and the prez is pissed. Boo-hoo.

That brings us to the runaway disaster of illegal wiretapping,
which we learn this morning had the FBI, on direction from the prez and some
in the NSA, chasing down schoolteachers instead of tracking real terrorists. Reminds me of when Ashcroft had the FBI chasing down hookers on Bourbon Street, while Muslims mounted planes to learn to take off, but not land. Anyway…
Not even the FBI director was convinced about the illegal wiretaps, but as for the agents, they don't want
any part of it. As for the career NSA officers, they finally leaked the truth
because they got sick of the president of the United States BREAKING THE LAW.
Besides, the
illegal wiretapping didn't even work!

Reminds me of something else, you know, that torture thing. The
FBI walked away from that too, while we have former
interrogators finally spilling the beans about Bush's maniacal quest for
information through torture, which yielded nothing of significance. Unless you
call bad intelligence a boon to our nation. Ask Colin
Powell what he thinks about the al-Libbi confession. On second thought,
don't, Bush even rendered the general a gelding.

Then there's the CIA, which doubted the intelligence in the first
place, but were ignored for Rummy's own outfit, which told him what he wanted
to hear, backed up Bush's boy Dick, while making sure the Weekly Standard's
Stephen “only fiction” Hayes had just enough information to make him
look like a loon. In fact, Mr. Hayes is still spinning the Saddam – al Qaeda connection. Maybe Oprah will endorse his next book.

And let's
not forget Capt. Fishback, not to mention the decision to go to war before
our troops were equipped.

After reading all that and believe me there is more, do you think the prez still has the right
to trot out national security like some sort of trick pony? If your answer is
yes, don't look now, but the boss is riding a nag.