To those of you who don't know, our country has never been served by a more competent and professional military. For that reason, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's recent statement that "we" made the "right strategic decisions" but made thousands of "tactical errors" is an outrage. It reflects an effort to obscure gross errors in strategy by shifting the blame for failure to those who have been resolute in fighting. The truth is, our forces are successful in spite of the strategic guidance they receive, not because of it.

I don't agree with him 100%, but he makes a strong statement. If only he'd done so sooner.

Why Iraq Was a Mistake

Chapter 72 of the McGraw-Hill Homeland Security Handbook addresses the important issue of the ideological differences between the United States and al-Qaida and the necessity to win the war of ideas. This chapter outlines the ideology promulgated by al-Qaida and associated terrorist groups. It examines recent attempts by the United States to combat al-Qaida’s worldview and compares this effort with America’s global propaganda campaign against the Soviet Union. The chapter concludes with some preliminary ideas about waging an effective counterpropaganda campaign against al-Qaida, including potential themes and approaches.

Gold star. Thought provoking and quite topical..

Waging the “War of Ideas”

When FBI supervisors in Miami met with new interim U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta last month, they wondered what the top enforcement priority for Acosta and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales would be.

Would it be terrorism? Organized crime? Narcotics trafficking? Immigration? Or maybe public corruption?

The agents were stunned to learn that a top prosecutorial priority of Acosta and the Department of Justice was none of the above. Instead, Acosta told them, it's obscenity. Not pornography involving children, but pornographic material featuring consenting adults.

Acosta's stated goal of prosecuting distributors of adult porn has angered federal and local law enforcement officials, as well as prosecutors in his own office. They say there are far more important issues in a high-crime area like South Florida, which is an international hub at risk for terrorism, money laundering and other dangerous activities.

His own prosecutors have warned Acosta that prioritizing adult porn would reduce resources for prosecuting other crimes, including porn involving children. According to high-level sources who did not want to be identified, Acosta has assigned prosecutors porn cases over their objections.

Speechless...

[ But he's doing it *for* the children. Right? To keep it from them? Or is it Jesus? Was Jesus anti-pr0n? Before or after the thing with the prostitute?

I say he's guilty of misuse of public money already and should be prosceuted himself. -k]

law.com - U.S. Attorney's Porn Fight Gets Bad Reviews

] The seemingly interminable questioning had already lasted
] for hours. 'I needed the toilet,' Mubanga said, 'and I
] asked the interrogator to let me go. But he just said,
] "you'll go when I say so". I told him he had five minutes
] to get me to the toilet or I was going to go on the
] floor. He left the room. Finally, I squirmed across the
] floor and did it in the corner, trying to minimise the
] mess. I suppose he was watching through a one-way mirror
] or the CCTV camera. He comes back with a mop and dips it
] in the pool of urine. Then he starts covering me with my
] own waste, like he's using a big paintbrush, working
] methodically, beginning with my feet and ankles and
] working his way up my legs. All the while he's racially
] abusing me, cussing me: "Oh, the poor little negro, the
] poor little nigger." He seemed to think it was funny.'

] Yet Mubanga, though traumatised by his ordeal, believes
] he stayed sane partly because of his growing religious
] faith, and partly because of his rapping. He has a
] provisional title for the album he'd like to record:
] Detainee . He also has a stage name - 10,007, his
] Guantanamo prisoner number. The content of his work is
] strongly political. There were times, Mubanga said, 'that
] I wanted to explode. And when I did, I tried to remember
] Allah, not to use aggression in that way. I never fought
] any of the guards, I never spat at them, or like some
] prisoners did, threw a packet of faeces. A lot of the
] time you go on to autopilot and you just have to tell
] yourself you're still here, it is happening, it is real.
] The golden rule a lot of us had is, if you don't feel
] tired, don't force yourself to sleep, stay active. That's
] why I made myself learn Arabic.

The Observer | How I entered the hellish world of Guantanamo Bay

] When he [Osama Bin Laden] said, 'Every
] state will be determining its own security, and will be
] responsible for its choice,' it means that any U.S. state
] that will choose to vote for the white thug Bush as
] president has chosen to fight us, and we will consider it
] our enemy, and any state that will vote against Bush has
] chosen to make peace with us, and we will not
] characterize it as an enemy. By this characterization,
] Sheikh Osama wants to drive a wedge in the American body,
] to weaken it, and he wants to divide the American people
] itself between enemies of Islam and the Muslims, and
] those who fight for us, so that he doesn't treat all
] American people as if they're the same. This letter will
] have great implications inside the American society, part
] of which are connected to the American elections, and
] part of which are connected to what will come after the
] elections."

I had already decided that I was voting for Bush. But now, I get frosting on the cake. By my vote, I can clearly do something that gives the finger to Osama? Well cool, that makes my decision even easier. :)

[ Call me crazy, but I'd rather that motherfucker was dead than to have the oportunitity to "give him the finger" now.

Not to mention, i completely disagree with this analysis. My reading of the transcript was, yes, that Osama dosen't like Bush, but then, a large portion of the world community doesn't like Bush either, and they're not terrorists (or are they!). However, I saw nothing that seemed to indicate specifically that Osama has a predilection for one candidate or the other. MEMRI's own translation says "Your security is not in the hands of Kerry or Bush or Al-Qa'ida. Your security is in your own hands, and any U.S. state that does not toy with our security automatically guarantees its own security." In other words, if you leave us alone, we'll leave you alone. Now, I don't buy that shit for a second, of course, and I certainly don't think either Bush or Kerry will take an official position of ignoring Osama, but nonetheless, i think it's a pretty clear statement that the likelihood of future attacks is based primarily on our foreign policy, not on which guy happens to be in the oval office.

Bush likes to bluster, and it clearly resonates well with a lot of people. "Yeah, fuck Osama, he can't tell me what to do! Up yours Osama." But that means nothing. This fucker is still running around, making tapes, and directing terrorism, and that's the best we got. On friday, in response to the tape, Bush said "Americans will not be intimidated or influenced by an enemy of our country." That sounds like tough talk until you realize it's completely retarded. We won't be influenced by our enemies? What have we been doing for the past 3 years then? Business as usual? Not precisely. All Bush had to do is stick to it and kill this asshole and he'd have been Gods own canditate, a shoo in for re-election, even if he had taken on Iraq afterwards, but Iraq was more important somehow, so Osama's still out there saying "Hey America, remember 9/11? That was me, y'all. And I'm gonna do it some more too."

Support for Bush can be achieved through certain avenues of logic, I'm sure, but success in the global war on terror just isn't one of them. -k]

MEMRI: Osama bin Laden Threatens U.S. States Not to Vote for Bush

] Inside the Bush administration policymaking apparatus,
] there is strong feeling that U.S. troops must leave Iraq
] next year. This determination is not predicated on
] success in implanting Iraqi democracy and internal
] stability. Rather, the officials are saying: Ready or
] not, here we go.

If we walk out and leave the place for dead we'll produce another Iran.
Will the U.N. help us now that we've made this mess? Can they do so effectively? Would the people in Iraq view them more legitimately as a security force? Do they have the strength to take the insurgents on when we don't?

[ Keep in mind, this is Robert Novak talking. Not someone I have a lot of faith in. That being said, I think this article cuts to the heart of what a lot of people are starting to realize, which is that the place is quite simply fucked. That the situation may be so far out of hand that anything resembling victory is not merely difficult, but completely impossible. That the scope of the mismanagement is so great that no UN support or new tactic or amount of money is gonna fix it.

I don't claim to be expert enough to make this determination, but i read enough to catch the thread of this argument from people who are experts. The comparisons to Vietnam are no longer tossed around frivolously by extremists, but by highly respected ex-generals. More, or different colored, boots on the ground may not be enough. Bush broke Iraq, and we may have to admit that it's beyond putting back together. No one likes that answer, but it's not implausible.

And I think turning into Iran isn't the worst case scenario even. -k]

Quick exit from Iraq is likely

] There is something terribly wrong when the United States,
] after Sept. 11, fails to condemn the pardoning of
] terrorists and instead allows them to walk free on U.S.
] streets.

Moral Misstep (washingtonpost.com)

] The Pentagon has determined that a detainee held for an
] extended period in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, should no longer
] be classified as an unlawful enemy combatant and will be
] returned to his native country, a senior official said
] Wednesday.

Supreme Court ordered judicial process nets innocent victim.

The New York Times - U.S. Will Send Detainee Home From Cuba

] In a late Tuesday night court filing, the department told
] U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen it supports the Detroit
] defendants' request for a new trial and would no longer
] pursue terrorism charges against them. The defendants at
] most would only face fraud charges at a new trial.

Nah, the U.S. Government never makes mistakes when it prosecutes people. Anyone who is accused of being a terrorist must be a terrorist. Thats why its ok to throw them in GITMO without trial.

Yahoo! News - U.S. Seeks to Throw Out Terror Convictions

] The father then walked into the garage, picked up a
] propane tank, a lighting device and a can of gasoline he
] used to douse the van, police Capt. Tony Rode said. He
] smashed the van's window, got inside and set it ablaze,
] despite attempts by the Marines to stop him, Rode said.
]
] The Marines, reservists who are members of a military
] Casualty Assistance Calls Officer team, pulled Arredondo,
] 44, from the burning vehicle and extinguished the flames
] on him, police said.
]
] Arredondo was initially taken to Memorial Regional
] Hospital in Hollywood with burns over as much as 50
] percent of his body, emergency officials said.
]
] Melida Arredondo told the Miami Herald that her husband,
] an immigrant from Costa Rica, "was very proud of Alex
] serving," though he wished his service would have been
] during a "more peaceful" time.
]
] But Luz Marina Arredondo, Alexander's grandmother, felt
] the government was at fault for her grandson's death.
]
] "I blame them a lot," she said. "They send them like
] guinea pigs over there."

ABCNEWS.com : Man Burns Marine Van After GI Son's Death