Well, isn't this a big surprise: "Bush Aides See Failure in Fight With Al Qaeda in Pakistan." According to the New York Times:In identifying the main reasons for Al Qaeda?s resurgence, intelligence officials and White House aides pointed the finger squarely at a hands-off approach toward the tribal areas by Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who last year brokered a cease-fire with tribal leaders in an effort to drain support for Islamic extremism in the region.Wait, you mean that focusing all our energies on Saddam Hussein's Iraq, where there was no Al Qaeda presence and ZERO connection to the 9/11 attacks, as opposed to going all out against Bin Laden and Company in Afghanistan and Pakistan, didn't work? Is that shocking or what? Perhaps, but only to the same nincompoops who could have looked at a summer 2001 memo entitled, "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US," and gone off to clear brush at the ranch in Crawford or whatever."It hasn't worked for Pakistan," said Frances Fragos Townsend, who heads the Homeland Security Council at the White House. "It hasn't worked for the United States."
So here's the situation as we approach the 6-year anniversary of 9/11:
*According to the U.S. intelligence community, Al Qaeada is as strong, or possibly stronger, than ever.
*The war in Iraq has been an utter strategic debacle, seriously harming U.S. national security, destabilizing the Middle East, strengthening Iran, and creating more terrorists (who weren't in Iraq to begin with, but are NOW!) than it kills or captures.
*Thousands of brave, dedicated American soldiers have died, hundreds of billions of dollars have been squandered, and we're LESS secure than before the war in Iraq.
*Iraq is in danger of slipping into full-scale civil war, genocide, or even regional war.
*There's a growing danger that Pakistan, with its nuclear weapons, could fall under control of extremist Islamic groups like the Taliban or even Al Qaeda.
*Our main ally (and only Democracy) in the region, Israel, is almost undoubtedly less secure than it was prior to the war in Iraq.
Heckuva job by the Bush Administration and Republican-controlled Congress (2001-2006), huh? Yeah, heckuva job, just like Brownie.