AMERICAN INTELLIGENCE

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

If a committee is created to try and discover the biggest failure in recent American intelligence, they won’t have to look any further for an answer than the signature at the bottom of the Executive Order that formed them.

PAD

124 comments on “AMERICAN INTELLIGENCE”

  2. *ba da BOOM*

    Thank you, thank you, I’ll be here all week. Be sure to tip your waitress.

    PAD

  4. Four words famous for being on that desk.

    “The Buck Stops Here.”

    Maybe GWB should look into it…

    …right after someone told him it didn’t refer to a male deer or a Milwaukee basketball player.

  5. Now, now. Dubya’s a baseball man, not a basketball type. He’d think it refered to (still active in his early 90s in terms of making personal appearances) Negro League star Buck O’Neill.

    The latest This Modern Life by Tom Tomorrow, visible on http://www.salon.com, has a nice bit with Secret Squirrel being responsible for the intelligence behind the attack. Although it’s still really Dubya and Chaney’s fault.

    Still waiting for someone to get to the bottom of the Valerie Plume outing as a CIA agent, which’d seem to amount to high treason by someone in the Bush Administration.

  9. I’m no rabid Bush supporter, but I gotta ask some of my predecessing posters: where does this “Bush is a moron” come from?

    If it’s the “nuculer” thing, it drives me nuts, too, but Jimmy Carter said it that way also, and he was an engineer on nuculer subs, so I think it’s a Southern thing.

    Bush has an MBA from Harvard, a talented fighter pilot (in a series of fighters that were famous for being very demanding, unforgiving planes) and his whole political career has been a long record of being underestimated by his opponents, then cutting them into pieces.

    No, I’m not a big Bush fan, but so far I’m not impressed with his rivals. I’ve lived too long a state away from Kerry and Dean to be much enamored of them; Edwards was an ambulance-chaser who’s in the trial lawyer’s pocket; Clark is a flip-flopping weasel who’s straight from the Clinton’s pocket. I voted for Lieberman, who has absolutely NO chance, despite being the most decent and reasonable one in the pack.

    J.

  11. I’m voting Bush next election in large part because of the Democratic fields apparent desire to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, so to speak. Were it not for the WoT I don’t know which way I’d go. But especially after the dems have framed 2004 to essentially be a referendum on the Iraq policy, I can’t vote for any of them. Lieberman is an exception. I’d like to see him run in 2008. Watch Bush win 2004 and the Iraq statagy pay off in the larger war. Lieberman will be positioned in 2008 as one of the very few Dems who supported it.

    And while we call it a War on Terror it is not a war on terror. Yes, we are after Al Queda, but if we just destroyed Al Queda the war would not be won. We are at war with the environment that created Al Queda. That environment is the current culture/geopolitical situation of the Middle East. That has lots to do with Israel.

    For how it is effecting the Israel part of the problem here is good analysis of the situation and why the road to peace in Israel runs through Baghdad:

    http://denbeste.nu/cd_log_entries/2004/01/UpagainsttheWall.shtml

  12. If it’s the “nuculer” thing, it drives me nuts, too, but Jimmy Carter said it that way also, and he was an engineer on nuculer subs, so I think it’s a Southern thing.

    Sigh. No. I live in the southern states, and everyone I know pronounces the word correctly, and we all make fun of Dubya every time we hear him screw it up.

    I wish all these stigmas attached to the south would just disappear.

  13. I think the intelligiance community is taking the hit for Bush. I am having trouble believing they were so off base. He wanted war and made sure he got one…

  14. I seem to remember a number of comments and memos from the intelligence community dated before the invasion of Iraq that seemed to strongly imply that the CIA seriously doubted there were still WMDs in Iraq, if indeed there ever were any in the past ten years.

    Just curious as to why this has been ignored in the news.

  15. Henry:

    OK, I take back the “Southerner” thing. Maybe it’s a “Southerner governor who becomes President thing” or something. Drives me nuts, too, but I’ve been working on letting it go.

    Michael: He comes by his Bushisms honestly. His father had the same passing familiarity with the spoken word. But at least he speaks more than one language (kind of), unlike some other people I could mention (cough (me)). And I judge him on his deeds, not words.

    I’m still not completely thrilled with him — his illegal immigration proposal, wild spending, etc. etc., but I’m waiting for an acceptable alternative. You can’t beat somebody with nobody, and believe me, take it from a New Hampshirite, Kerry is one colossal joke.

    J.

  16. Unfortunately, this election is like so many others in recent years. There is no one I actually want to vote for, but there is someone I want to vote against: Bush. (There’s a shaving joke here but I’ll try to behave.)

    Then again, I could just flip a coin. The devil you know…

  17. (quote)Bush has an MBA from Harvard(unquote)

    And thereafter promptly ran 3 companies he headed into bankruptcy.

    (quote)a talented fighter pilot (in a series of fighters that were famous for being very demanding, unforgiving planes)(unquote)

    Political pressure allowed him to jump ahead of scores of candidates for pilot who scored higher than he.

    Trained on obsolete planes, which had zero chance of ever seeing combat.

    Records show his piloting being rated mediocre at best.

    Removed from active pilot status after failing to get a required flight readiness physical.

    (quote)his whole political career has been a long record of being underestimated by his opponents, then cutting them into pieces(unquote)

    Short as that career has been, I fail to see how touting the tearing down of others rather than achieving significant accomplishments is a plus. History has already shown the sham of his Texas education ‘reforms’ and the fiscal pain as a result of his Texas economic policies.

    (quote)where does this “Bush is a moron” come from?(unquote)

    He got the label the old-fashioned way — he earned it.

    As for his inability to string together coherent sentences: after literally decades of his (documented) alcohol and (reported but unverified) drug abuse, I’d be astonished if he could.

  19. (quote)Typical and pathetic, but it’s to be expected. (unquote)

    Odd that you fail to use words such as ‘untrue’ or ‘false’ or even ‘exaggerated.’

    Deny it if you must, but the record is irrefutable.

  21. No, I can’t go with Anybody But Bush.

    I’m a Dem, but if Sharpton got the nomination — ain’t gonna happen — I’d vote either Libertarian or Green or not vote.

    Any other Dem, I’m proud to vote for, but not Al (Tawana Brawley) Sharpton.

  22. “We are at war with the environment that created Al Queda. That environment is the current culture/geopolitical situation of the Middle East.”

    What does the Middle East have to do with the second-biggest terrorist attack in U.S. history? ie McVeigh’s blowing up that Federal building in Oklahoma City? Maybe they need to look closer to home when trying to deal with that ‘environment’?

  23. Bush as a leader has created the biggest Anti-American movement not only in his own country but also worldwide. This is shown by his “if your not with us your against us” way of thinking, he was not even able to get Canada on his side.

    If that’s a man you want to continue to lead your country say goodbye to being the leading super power say hello to the EU taking over. Check out the history of the Euro as a currency against the dollar to see what I mean.

  24. “And thereafter promptly ran 3 companies he headed into bankruptcy.”

    I’m so sick of hearing this. The most successfull businesmen have failed the most times. Until you’ve run multi-million dollar businesses, you should never be able to mention this. The people I know who are financially successful, and are currently running large multimillion dollar companies, are also ones who have been through multiple bankruptcies, lawsuits, and failures of all types.

    It has to do with taking risks.

    And as for who had the intelligence failure. Hmm, it was the same failur that had Clinton, Gore, and most of congress convinced that Iraq had WMD programs in place. If we really need to, I can pull in recent quotes from many, many, democrats quoting the intelligence, and stating clearly that we can’t allow Iraq to remain in possession of the WMD.

    Or maybe we should bring up the bill signed by Clinton establishing a policy of regime change in Iraq?

    Naaa..lets leave facts out of this. More fun to attack, attack, attack.

    This is one reason I would vote for Edwards (and possily old Joe). You’ve got someone with integrity, characters, and a bit of professional restraint. It’s too bad you don’t have it with the front runners (who’ve already been switching positions as the poll numbers change).

  25. I’m so sick of hearing this. The most successfull businesmen have failed the most times. Until you’ve run multi-million dollar businesses, you should never be able to mention this.

    And until you’ve written comic books, you shouldn’t criticize people who do. Ho bloody hum — this stale old argument again.

    More to the point, however, I would tend to challenge the statement you make below:

    The people I know who are financially successful, and are currently running large multimillion dollar companies, are also ones who have been through multiple bankruptcies, lawsuits, and failures of all types.

    I’m not doubting your word about the people you know, but my anecdotal evidence runs against that. I’ve got one family member who does in fact run multimillion-dollar corporations, and I’ve also got one family member who’s declared bankruptcy. They aren’t the same person (though as an intriguing coinkydink, they do share a birthday).

    Personally, the “ran X number of businesses into the ground” argument isn’t one that sticks particularly well for me. There are so many other good choices out there for reasons to criticize this administration (such as the U.S. economy, the stifling and marginalization of dissent, and yes, Bush’s Iraq policy) that his business past isn’t enough to make a blip.

    TWL

  26. I haven’t seen this mentioned, but I find Bush appointing a panel to look into “Intelligence failures” reminiscent of Claude Raines in “Casablanca” being “Shocked, shcoked!” to find gambling going on.

    Can anyone say “Election year ploy.”

  27. Do only anti-Bush people post here?

    Not at all. It’s just that there are a lot more anti-Bush people in the world lately, much to pro-Bush people’s evident surprise. Perhaps you should ask why?

    Until you’ve run multi-million dollar businesses, you should never be able to mention this.

    I have. The last company I founded prior to my current venture was sold for $85.6 million. I’ll mention it. Bush is a pinhead.

    For that matter, all the other people I know who’ve founded and run multi-million (and in one case, billion) dollar companies handled their circumstances better than GWB. For starters, they did it with their own money. For another, they also fired people who screwed up while working for them.

  28. I can pull in recent quotes from many, many, democrats quoting the intelligence, and stating clearly that we can’t allow Iraq to remain in possession of the WMD

    Anyone can with little or no effort. But did any of them get 500+ U.S. soldiers killed? Did any of them cost us between $100 & $200 billion dollars of our tax money (Amount depends on which source you use)?

    By the way, anyone see today’s Boondocks (which is on topic)?

    http://www.ucomics.com/boondocks/

  29. Still waiting for someone to get to the bottom of the Valerie Plume outing as a CIA agent, which’d seem to amount to high treason by someone in the Bush Administration.

    You notice how quickly they launched the investigation into whether or not Paul O’Neil had leaked any of their precious secret documents to “60 Minutes”? And it took them how many months to gather up the strength to look into the CIA leak?

    Nice to know they have their priorities.

  31. “…where does this “Bush is a moron” come from? If it’s the “nuculer” thing…”

    Hmm. That’s actually pretty easy. It comes from the man himself. For one thing, the guy can’t get through a sentence, even when he has a speech written right in front of him, without mangling words. And even if he does miraculously manage to tie two words together it’s usually something stupid like “the major combat operations have ended” or “bring ’em on”.

    “Bush has an MBA from Harvard…”

    You cannot honestly be using this as backup? It’s fairly common knowledge that Bush’s way into both Yale and Harvard was paved by his dad’s credentials. He barely skated through Yale, with a C average. Something that he proudly declared in a recent speech to Yale students. I’m sorry, but when your ticket to an Ivy League school is bought and paid for by daddy that doesn’t make me respect you any more.

    “…a talented fighter pilot (in a series of fighters that were famous for being very demanding, unforgiving planes)…”

    Yeah, and he got the lowest possible score (a 25) on the pilot’s exam and yet still managed to catapult past a waiting list of about 500 other young men. Of course he did prove to be a capable pilot until he went AWOL, and lost his flight status after failing to show up for duty or get a pilot’s physical exam for well over a year. And this is the moron that’s driving our troops into battle?

    “..and his whole political career has been a long record of being underestimated by his opponents, then cutting them into pieces…”

    I’m not sure I’ve ever seen Bush cut anyone to pieces. What he does is promise one thing, like “compassionate conservatism”, barely eke out a victory, and then pretend that the at least 50% of people that did not vote for him don’t exist as he panders to his ultra-conservative backers. And let’s not forget that he generally has more money thrown at him than any 5 of his opponents; gee, I wonder why so many wealthy people would back Bush? It must be because he’s so darned smart!

    “No, I’m not a big Bush fan, but so far I’m not impressed with his rivals.”

    And there’s a difference between saying “Bush is a smart guy” and saying “Bush’s opponents aren’t impressive.” The two statements aren’t exactly mutually exclusive.

    Phinn

  32. “I seem to remember a number of comments and memos from the intelligence community dated before the invasion of Iraq that seemed to strongly imply that the CIA seriously doubted there were still WMDs in Iraq…”

    And you would be correct. In fact, George Tenet, the current whipping boy/fall guy for the Administration, personally saw to it that the now infamous “sixteen words” were stricken from two speeches that Bush had given previously. The Administration wanted them in a speech so badly that they kept reinserting them. For the State of the Union, once again, CIA suggested that the statement be removed but the Administration now claimed that they could blame British Intelligence as the source, even though their own intelligence agency had disproved the information months earlier.

    The thing that gets me the most about Bush in this particular topic is the fact that the man will say the words, but he won’t take the responsibility. His whole speech this year was carefully crafted to avoid all mention of the weapons that he swore were in Iraq last year, and he is doing everything he can to get Tenet to take the blame. He’s a real stand-up guy, the GW.

    Phinn

  33. Anyone who thinks that the intelligence failure regarding justification for war in Iraq is Bush’s fault is kidding themselves. The U.S. intelligence community has had its human intelligence operations hamstrung (for various reasons) for more than three decades, and has tried to compensate by increasing its emphasis on passive electronic surveillance — with obviously mixed results. Any president getting intel briefs is only as good as the government agency providing them. It’s a classic case of garbage in, garbage out. You can poke fun at Bush all day long, but that won’t solve the real problem. It may make some of you feel more smug and secure with a new president come November, but not me. I won’t feel better until the real root cause of the intel failure is found and fixed.

    Russ Maheras

  34. “Anyone who thinks that the intelligence failure regarding justification for war in Iraq is Bush’s fault is kidding themselves.”

    And I might agree with you if not for the fact that:

    1.) As I mentioned previously, the CIA was able to prove that statements Bush made in his State of the Union justifying the war in Iraq were false, but the Administration kept reinserting them.

    2.) That the questionable intelligence was used as a justification for staging an unprecidented unprovoked attack on a sovereign nation. The US had never done anything like that before. Bush was playing a huge gamble on the war, assuming that even if his intelligence was bad the ends would justify the means when he found the weapons.

    Guess what? He didn’t. So now what? We rewrite history to change the reasons for the war almost a year later and say we weren’t looking for weapons, but weapons “programs”. Oh, and also, it’s the people of Iraq, yearning to be free, that we were really there to help.

    3.) And finally, there is the concept of “the buck stops here”, which has been mentioned previously. Bush is the Commander in Chief. He is the man who drove this war. He is the person who prances around like a giant poof, dressed up in military uniforms and hugging servicemen, at every opportunity. He is the one that is hoping to parlay the deaths of American Soldiers, deaths that he challenged the enemy combatants to “bring it on”, into a political victory by covering up his lies and twisting American Patriotism into votes.

    The guy is a dìçk.

    Phinn

  35. “The people I know who are financially successful, and are currently running large multimillion dollar companies, are also ones who have been through multiple bankruptcies, lawsuits, and failures of all types.”

    I’m getting tired of this argument from the Bush apologists.

    In case you haven’t noticed, the United States is now carrying an unprecedented $500+ billion deficit, we’ve lost three million jobs in the last four years, our military is stretched dangerously thin, the US Army War College has admitted the Iraq war has nothing to do with terrorism, our President has started a war on the false pretext of Iraqi WMDs, we’re being shunned by friends and foes alike, and Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda buddies are still laughing their butts off at us from somewhere in Afghanistan. In short, George W. Bush is already running this country into bankruptcy. And unfortunately for the rest of us, this is the only country we’ve got.

    If George wants to get his chops in corporate leadereship, let him open a McDonalds franchise in Iowa — but for the love of Primus, don’t let him use our country as another “learning experience.”

  37. I’m not going to get in some long debate about Bush, because a.) I didn’t vote for him, and b.) I don’t think he’s the problem. The intel failures for 9-11 and the war in Iraq started long before Bush bopped on in to the White House.

    As far as the war in Iraq being totally unprovoked, that’s baloney. The U.S., and the U.N., for that matter, had been provoked almost since the end of the FIRST Gulf War. Just because no action was taken by the world community when Saddam thumbed his nose at U.N. resolution after U.N. resolution does not mean no provocations were going on. And just because no action was taken by the U.S. when Saddam’s planes violated the No-Fly Zone time after time, and repeatedly fired upon U.S. aircraft patrolling the zone, does not mean no provocation was going on. And lord knows what other provocations went behind the scenes, unreported by the press but observed through various intelligence agencies.

    Regarding your comment that we’ve never attacked a sovereign nation unprovoked before, may I remind you that when Clinton ordered the invasion of Haiti in 1994 to get rid of another nasty dictator, there was no provocation or direct threat to U.S. national security. And I ought to be a bit familiar with that operation, because I was on the second C-5 aircraft that landed in Port-au-Prince airport the day it kicked off, hoping literally I wouldn’t get my butt shot off as we touched down. Luckily, Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras, the ruling military dictator at the time, decided to leave with a wimper and not a bang. Saddam was not so accommodating.

    Russ Maheras

  38. The founders of companies such as Nike, McDonald’s, and Sony failed again and again. I can name many other examples.

    But hey, why tout facts. People can hit here and clame anything they want, and not back it up, and everyone buys it. And others who can’t get people to read or post on their own web log can come and attack others as well. Inuendo works as well as facts anyday….

    Bush will get reelected, Ossama will be found in the coming months, the economy is recovering, the job market is getting better, and when all is said and done, these little people in their little worlds will still be sitting at home eating their hohos complaining about Bush and hit “ficticious war”. The rest of us will move on.

    This is as bad as the Republicans and Clinton. People on both sides need to get a clue.

  39. Did you know that Dubya has spent more money in his first three years in office than Bill Clinton spent in his entire eight? But I guess that’s okay, you know, ’cause the economy’s “stronger than ever” and all…

    That OTHER John Byrne

  40. Bush has an MBA from Harvard

    It reminds me of that recent FedEx commercial:

    “Oh, you have an MBA”.

    Like that automatically places you on the More Intelligent People Pole.

    It doesn’t, and Duyba is living proof.

  41. So, let me get this straight, first, Bush leans on the intelligence agencies to “massage” their data and all nuance so that phrases like “Saddam may be building a nuclear weapon” become “Saddam is building a nuclear weapon.” Ðìçk goes as far as to suggest that we need to create a brand new intelligence agency to give them the “correct” conclusions.

    Now that it’s clear that the WMDs were not there when we invaded, it’s the fault of sloppy intelligence gatherers.

    Welcome to the Ministry of Truth, Mr. Winston.

  43. Russ Maheras: …when Clinton ordered the invasion of Haiti in 1994 to get rid of another nasty dictator, there was no provocation or direct threat to U.S. national security.

    True, but Clinton never claimed that Haiti was a direct threat to national security when he ordered the invasion, or claimed that Haiti was manufacturing WMDs. Also, there was the small matter of re-seating the exiled government that Gen. Cedras had sacked in a successful coup. Granted, the reseated government under Jean-Bertrand Aristide wasn’t a paragon of true democracy, but at least the reason for invading Haiti was a legitimate one, and not a ‘find the WMDs/free the Iraqi people/obvious ties to Al-Queda’ reason of the week shell game.

    And in all seriousness, Russ, let me thank you for your service to your country. The sacrifices the members of our armed services make for their country are routinely overlooked and underappreciated. Thank you.

    tOjb

  44. As for Valerie Plame, there’s an ivestigation, with indictments rumored soon. It’s hard to consider it high treason when she recently appeared in a full color spread in Vogue.

  45. I know Jerry the earlier poster states, ‘Until you’ve run multi-million dollar businesses, you should never be able to mention this,’ but I think we’ll have to ignore that ill-founded comment in favor of the record. In 1990, Harken Energy was awash in red ink. In order to obscure their 1989 losses, they sold 80% of a subsidiary, Aloha Petroleum to a partnership called International Marketing and Resources for $12 million, $11 million of which came from a note held by Harken. Since Harken was carrying an $11 million note, basically the only money they got up front was the first million, but the company booked $7.9 million on the sale. In January of 1990, IMR sold its Aloha stake to a privately held company called Advance Petroleum Marketing, effectively transferring the Harken loan to Advance. If anybody has trouble figuring all of that out, it meant that a group of Harken insiders essentially borrowed money from their own company to buy a subsidiary at inflated prices. After that, they booked non-existent sales revenue as profit, and then got rid of the loan that provided the revenue. It meant that instead of declaring major losses, Harken was able to declare a relatively modest loss of $3.3 million in its 1989 annual report, which meant the shareholders had no idea about what kind of dire straits the company was in. The SEC subsequently found the Aloha sale was bogus, which meant that Harken had to adjust their profit-and-loss statements, but it kept the company’s share value up long enough for Bush to dump $845,560 of stock, without disclosing that sale to the SEC. It wasn’t the first time that he failed to report a sale; twice before that June 1990 stock sale, Bush (a board member)had failed to file the proper disclosure forms with the SEC. In his discussion of the Aloha sale on July 8, 2002, Bush stated ‘There was no malfeeance [sic[ not attempt to hide anything. In the corporate works, sometimes things aren’t exactly black and white when it comes to accounting problems.’ Amazing what an MBA from Harvard will teach you.

  46. “What does the Middle East have to do with the second-biggest terrorist attack in U.S. history?” Only that it has spat out things like Al Queda.

    “Bush as a leader has created the biggest Anti-American movement not only in his own country but also worldwide.” Ain’t nothing being shown what wasn’t already there. And Europe is anti-american because of european reasons. Not for anything we have done other then be more successful then they.

    “If that’s a man you want to continue to lead your country say goodbye to being the leading super power say hello to the EU taking over.”

    Not gonna happen. The EU is not going to become a counter weight to the US let alone out do us. It is hardly united. Expecct it to begin to fall apoart in the near future.

    “-Do only anti-Bush people post here?-

    Not at all. It’s just that there are a lot more anti-Bush people in the world lately, much to pro-Bush people’s evident surprise. Perhaps you should ask why?”

    See I’m not pro-bush, nor am I anti-bush. I was just wondering about the balance on this site. Thus far it sounds unbalanced. And are you suggesting that that just because people show their dislike of you that you should reverse course? Have you no steel in your spine?

    And remember, this is not about the rest of the world liking us. This is about the rest of the world not fûçkìņg with us.

  47. Robert Jung…you kinda undercut a good post by referencing the Transformers…or an 80’s hair band…in your closing line.

    Brill…uhm..ok..do you not notice that we’re being “messed” with more now that we’re the world’s bully then when we were the world’s leader?

  48. And Europe is anti-american because of european reasons. Not for anything we have done other then be more successful then they.

    That is about as shallow and self-serving as you can get. The primary anti-US sentiment in Europe pre-9-11 was actually anti-globalization. After 9-11, we had the support of the world. It was only the incredible decision to make a preemptive attack on Iraq which destroyed our worldwide reputation.

    And are you suggesting that that just because people show their dislike of you that you should reverse course? Have you no steel in your spine?

    The problem is when the steel gets up into the neck, and prevents you from looking around. Bush is leading the country with blinders on.

    And remember, this is not about the rest of the world liking us. This is about the rest of the world not fûçkìņg with us.

    There are two reasons people won’t fûçk with you.

    1) They like you.

    2) They fear you.

    Only the first one works long term.

  49. Brill…uhm..ok..do you not notice that we’re being “messed” with more now that we’re the world’s bully then when we were the world’s leader?

    Foreign attitudes towards America have not changed a whole lot in the past 100 years or so, in my opinion. We’ve almost always been portrayed by the intellectuals of other countries (and even our own) as brash, ignorant, unsophisticated, imperialistic, spoiled, intolerant, and criminal. What I find ironic about these attitudes is that many of the countries with the loudest accusers have similar, or far worse failings. As a matter of fact, it’s almost a given that when certain countries start screaming about one of our policies, I know we’re probably doing something RIGHT! I’ve lived in or visited a number of countries over the past 25 years, and that’s my perception, anyway.

    Because of that fact, I refuse to participate in any intellectual self-flagellation of the United States, because despite our country’s warts and flaws, I’ve yet to see another place in the world where I’d truly rather live.

    Russ Maheras

  50. “do you not notice that we’re being “messed” with more now that we’re the world’s bully then when we were the world’s leader? “

    What? Has something happened to us since 9/11?

    “The primary anti-US sentiment in Europe pre-9-11 was actually anti-globalization. “

    Here: http://denbeste.nu/cd_log_entries/2004/01/Europeandisunity.shtml

    It’s got other links in it. Good stuff.

    “After 9-11, we had the support of the world.”

    Only so long as we played the victim. And that is not real support.

    There are only two problems that America faces internationally that could fûçk us any. The Middle East Problem and the China Problem. The former is more immediate and we’re on a path towords solving it. Not the most perfect path but definitely one that can get us there. China is a bit more sticky. They view a conflict with America as inevitable. In 25 years this will be more immenent. Hopefully by then the playing field will have shifted to a point where we can see a solution.

Comments are closed.