Magnet for Evil - Dowd

[UpInArms]

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/20/opinion/20DOWD.html?ex=1061956800&en=3dd6c20c85a24df8&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

The Bush team has now created the very monster that it conjured up to alarm Americans into backing a war on Iraq.

Rushing to pummel Iraq after 9/11, Bush officials ginned up links between Saddam and Al Qaeda. They made it sound as if Islamic fighters on a jihad against America were slouching toward Baghdad to join forces with murderous Iraqis.

There was scant evidence of it then, but it's coming true now.

Since America began its occupation, Iraq has become the mecca for every angry, hate- crazed Arab extremist who wants to liberate the Middle East from the "despoiling" grasp of the infidels.

...more...

[fizzana]

1. Duh

Everone except those making the policy figured this would happen.

[MoonAndSun]

2. A scathing indictment on the lies they told to get us into this mess,

more snips>

"The dynamics have really changed," said an administration official on the reconstruction team. "Now we're dealing with a guerrilla war, not terrorism."

Osama bin Laden was inspired to attack us partly by his hatred of the American military presence in Saudi Arabia. Now foreign zealots from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Syria, enraged about the American military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan, are slipping over the Iraqi border to help Saddam loyalists.

Bush officials, who before the war also overdramatized the connection between Saddam and the Ansar al-Islam militants in northern Iraq, have now become spooked about hundreds of fighters coming back from Iran to attack Americans."




bush* has the blood of thousands of innocent people on his hands.

[Snellius]

3. Dowd also has an eye for cruel ironies:

One of the things the terrorists in Baghdad and Jerusalem blew up yesterday was the credibility of the Panglossian Bush version of what's happening in the Middle East.

The administration's optimism was exposed as a fantasy when the two efforts it holds most dear — the reconstruction and democratization of Iraq, and advancing the Palestinian-Israeli peace process — both went up in smoke yesterday, literally.

Before the Iraq war, the Bush team inflated the threats to America; since the war, the Bush team has deflated the threats to America.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/20/opinion/20DOWD.html

[gulliver]

5. They understated the threat of North Korea too.

And that was before the Iraq war. Modo's got the Bushie's number big time in this editorial, but she has to watch her tendency to choose phraseology over content.

[Merlin]

4. This article could have been written about Vietnam in 1966.

It has the exact same tone and conclusions:

"Senator John McCain and others agreed yesterday that we need more reinforcements."

"So where are we? We can't leave, and we can't stay forever. We just have to slug it out."

I expect a formal announcement of an increased troop strength--another 25,000 or so--within 2 months.

The question is, can * make it through the election before having to reinstitute the draft?

[Kolesar]

6. "the biggest Al Qaida recruiting drive ever" --Cong Sherrod Brown, 2002

That was his reason for opposing the war. He was right. Now that I was moved into Republican LaTourette's district, I wish I could make him pay for his GOP hubris and deceit.

[skip fox]

7. We're screwed! Bergen has been making this point. Implications? Well .

Peter Bergen on CNN this morning was AGAIN stating that Iraq has become a magnet for Jihadists throughout
the region, that al-Quaeda and other radical Islamic groups are pouring into Iraq as a "target rich"
environment. (Bergen, who is one of the most credible sources on these issue has been saying this for
WEEKS and WEEKS! Only now, since the bombings of the Jordanian embassy and the UN, are American
officials noting the possiblity of the resistence consisting or more then disgruntled "Saddam loyalists.")

Bergen contention this a.m. was that the UN bombing's purpose is to dissuade other Western governments to
aid US and Britain in policing and reconstructing Iraq. The interviewer did not ask him, but he was clearly
implying that the United States is viewed by the opposition as having been caught in a trap and al-Quaeda
is trying to isolate us in the country so they can kill more Americans.

Thus . . . the quagmire is shortly upon us.

Meanwhile we're still arguing about who is doing this, applauding ourselves on our resolve, getting readly to
send in more troops and even claiming the terror groups coming into Iraq is a "good thing" be cause now
we can take our War on Terror right to them on their own grounds (instead of, say, East Orange).

It sounds as though we're not only acting like the pig getting ready for its slaughter, but polishing the apple
they will stick inour mouth.

[DinahMoeHum]

8. No shit, Dick Tracy !!!!!!

and Maureen can blow it out her ass. We DUers warned about this certainty from the very beginning.

:evilfrown:

[skip fox]

9. And check out the CAPTIONS on this topic in the Lounge:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=116004

and give us new one . . .