Wednesday, September 12, 2007

"How I Spent the Last Six Years," A brief list that might easily have been written by George W. Bush.



Regarding the attacks:
  • Ignored persistent warnings of an imminent terrorist attack.
  • Continued reading The Pet Goat ...
  • Went up in Air Force One after having been informed it was a likely target.
  • Spent the day in a panicky runaround, leaving it to others to reassure and inform a shocked nation.
  • Later sold photographs of self on same day for purposes of Republican fundraising.
  • Purposely misled rescue workers and volunteers about the safety of the air quality around Ground Zero.
  • Declared, like Wyatt Earp, that he would capture Bin Laden "dead or alive."
  • Told the rest of the world either they were "with us or against us," like Superman or something ...
  • Ignored the fact that most of the hijackers were from Saudi Arabia; pretended they were from Iraq.

Regarding Afghanistan:

  • Refused the help of NATO.
  • Squandered numerous opportunities to capture bin Laden, allowing him to escape at Tora Bora and elsewhere.
  • Rejected a more effective strategy of police work and targeting killings for mass bombings that helped alienate the population.
  • Allowed the Taliban to regroup and rebuild.
  • Allowed Al Qaeda to regroup and rebuild.
  • Allowed heroin production and exports to increase.
  • Allowed country to lapse back into chaos and threaten nuclear-armed Pakistan.

Regarding America:

  • Insisted on the right to arrest American citizens and hold them indefinitely without right to habeas corpus, thereby invalidating virtually the entire Constitution.
  • Kidnapped individuals for the purpose of "rendition" and certain torture, violating national laws at will.
  • Opened secret torture prisons in former police states and lied about it.
  • Wiretapped American citizens without warrant or lawful authority.
  • Monitored the actions of loyal patriotic organizations without warrant or lawful authority.
  • Attacked patriotism of everyone who questioned mindless path to self-destruction and attacked media sources who informed Americans of the actions of their government as having "blood on their hands."
  • Set up ineffective, scandal-plagued Department of Homeland Security.
  • Failed to protect obvious targets like nuclear and chemical power plants, ports, and the like.
  • Hyped phony arrests of unserious nutcases as victories in war on terrorism.
  • Refused New York City sufficient funds to protect itself from future attack.

Regarding Iraq:

  • Lied about evidence of weapons of mass destruction.
  • Lied about ties to Al Qaeda.
  • Lied about Iraq's nuclear weapons program.
  • Lied about infamous "Prague meeting."
  • Lied about lying about all of it.
  • Attempted to destroy reputation of loyal government servant, Joe Wilson.
  • Lied about willingness to fire anyone involved with doing so.
  • Failed to provide troops with sufficient body armor, vehicular protection.
  • Insisted on repeated stop-loss orders.
  • Cut medical spending for wounded veterans, resulting in substandard care for the wounded.
  • Refused to allow photographs of honored war dead.
  • Refused to attend funerals of killed soldiers.
  • Refused to give a military recruitment speech.
  • Told Americans to go shopping; offered further tax breaks to the wealthy, asking sacrifices of no one but soldiers and their families.
  • Opened and maintained a prison at Guantánamo that violated U.S. and international law, branding the United States as a rogue nation.
  • Misled Congress for purposes of securing war authority.
  • Failed to send sufficient troops for post-invasion occupation.
  • Failed to heed any postwar planning recommendations.
  • Failed to ensure restoration of order, post-invasion.
  • Failed to secure weapons sites, post invasion.
  • Failed to reach out to population.
  • Refused to count numbers of civilian dead and wounded.
  • Failed to set up functional government, police force, etc.
  • Arrested innocent individuals for the purpose of torture.
  • Lied, once again, about ties to Al Qaeda.
  • Failed to re-assess failed strategy, refused to replace incompetent subordinates.
  • Failed to heed message of 2006 congressional elections to draw down war, escalated it instead.
  • Failed to heed both Iraqi and U.S. population's repeatedly polled preference for withdrawal.
  • Squandered sympathy of entire world, drastically sinking global opinion of the United States.
  • Squandered hundreds of billions -- and, ultimately, trillions -- of dollars, destroying a functioning nation.
  • Strengthened Iran.
  • Strengthened Syria.
  • Strengthened Libya.
  • Weakened Israel.
  • Weakened Jordan.
  • Weakened Egypt.
  • Killed more than 3,000 Americans.
  • Wounded nearly 30,000 Americans.
  • Killed and wounded untold hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.
  • Provided recruitment material for terrorists the world over.
  • Continually attacked the patriotism of those who suggested alternatives that might have avoided much of the above.
  • Redoubled "determination," "strength," "grit," etc., every time any of the previous disasters was discovered.

And perhaps most amazingly of all: Got most of the mainstream media to go along with almost all of it ...

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