Bin Laden Determined To Strike In U.S. Part 2

April 30, 2008 6:45 PM

"The United States Lacks a Comprehensive Plan to Destroy the Terrorist Threat and Close the Safe Haven in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas" (PDF). A recent GAO report claims that the Bush administration has failed to prevent Al Qaeda's reemergence in Pakistan, and that we're basically right back where we started in 2001.
posted by homunculus (35 comments total)

which is good news for those determined neocons in the think-tank complex who want to sustain the "global war on terror" indefinitely.
posted by ornate insect at 6:47 PM on April 30 [1 favorite]

Four more years! Four more years!
posted by Joey Michaels at 6:53 PM on April 30

We're not right back where we were in 2001. We're several trillion poorer.
posted by eriko at 6:59 PM on April 30 [7 favorites]

"claims"?
posted by blue_beetle at 7:05 PM on April 30

This all begs the question that there was some intent other than never-ending conflict requiring a huge standing army.
posted by mullingitover at 7:10 PM on April 30 [1 favorite]

Hah, I'd love to hear what people would suggest as a "Comprehensive Plan" to deal with the Northwest Frontier Provence and Al Qaeda. Seems like a pretty much intractable problem -- Unless the Pakistani people decide they want to basically slice off part of their country and let us turn it in to Afghanistan 2.0. Which I seriously doubt.
posted by delmoi at 7:10 PM on April 30 [1 favorite]

This may be a bit of a non-sequitur, but if things are bad now, they are going to get a lot worse when Iraq's 5 million war orphans come of age. This past December, the Iraqi government revealed that, by it's own reckoning, 35% of the country's children are orphans. This is blowback in the making, and I suspect the consequences of this murderous war will make 9/11 seem tame by comparison.
posted by [expletive deleted] at 7:14 PM on April 30 [6 favorites]

We're not right back where we were in 2001. We're several trillion poorer.

Not all of us. Cheney and his backroom friends in the energy, security and military sector are doing just fine.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 7:26 PM on April 30 [3 favorites]

Huh, whoda thought?
posted by P.o.B. at 7:29 PM on April 30

One Day After Bush Says We’re ‘Winning’ In Afghanistan, State Dept. Says al Qaeda Is ‘Stronger’
posted by homunculus at 7:43 PM on April 30

Sorry, I should have been clearer. I suspect the consequences for America of this murderous war will make 9/11 seem tame by comparison.

For Iraq, the consequences of the war already make 9/11 look like a papercut.

The greatest act of state terrorism is the prosecution of an aggressive war. Any comprehensive global anti-terrorism strategy would be incomplete if it doesn't include bringing the Bush Administration, and those who aided it, to justice.

That there is little to no chance that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Perle, Feith, Wolfowitz et. al. will spend the rest of their days under supervised retirement in The Hague is the greatest failure of criminal justice in our time.
posted by [expletive deleted] at 7:58 PM on April 30

We're several trillion poorer.

And many, many lives have been lost.
posted by gen at 8:13 PM on April 30

Lest we forget --

“Exactly five years ago tomorrow, President Bush landed aboard the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, stood under a banner proclaiming ‘Mission Accomplished,’ and declared, ‘major combat operations in Iraq have ended.’ Since that day, more than 3,900 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq, representing more than 97 percent of total troop deaths there.

Today, reporter Helen Thomas asked White House Press Secretary Dana Perino how the president would ‘commemorate’ the date tomorrow. Perino said the White House had ‘certainly paid a price for not being more specific on that banner’:

PERINO: President Bush is well aware that the banner should have been much more specific, and said, Mission Accomplished For These Sailors Who Are On This Ship On Their Mission. And we have certainly paid a price for not being more specific on that banner. And I recognize that the media is going to play this up again tomorrow, as they do every single year.”

Watch it.
posted by ericb at 8:37 PM on April 30 [3 favorites]

I wonder if Perino is dead inside. I mean, if she had a soul, it couldn't possibly survive the job of peddling this administrations shit day-in and day-out.

I almost feel sorry for her. Almost.
posted by photoslob at 8:44 PM on April 30 [2 favorites]

more than 3,900 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq

We're above the 4,000 mark now. And the estimates for Iraqi deaths are in the hundreds of thousands.
posted by ornate insect at 8:45 PM on April 30

We're above the 4,000 mark now.

Exactly. Since "Mission Accomplished" Day [May 1, 2003] , more than 3,900 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq...

Operation Iraqi Freedom began on March 20, 2003 with over 100 deaths. Add these to the U.S. death rate that has been accounted for two months later and week peak the 4,000 mark.
posted by ericb at 8:53 PM on April 30

*and we peak the 4,000 mark.*
posted by ericb at 8:54 PM on April 30

We are also in a worse position at home where we have a huge, brand-new, and expensive infrastructure which gives us the illusion of protection. Abroad, the forces of evil have not been held back so much as they have been allowed to fester in a beneficial environment in which they can only grow. Sometimes the best way to kill the monster is not through brute force.
posted by JJ86 at 8:56 PM on April 30

This past December, the Iraqi government revealed that, by it's own reckoning, 35% of the country's children are orphans. This is blowback in the making, and I suspect the consequences of this murderous war will make 9/11 seem tame by comparison.

BRANG IT ON!!!!!!!!11111
posted by Avenger at 8:57 PM on April 30 [1 favorite]

I wonder if Perino is dead inside. I mean, if she had a soul, it couldn't possibly survive the job of peddling this administrations shit day-in and day-out. I almost feel sorry for her. Almost.

Other 'walking dead' who came before her -- Ari Fleischer, Scott McClellan and Tony Snow. None of whom I feel sorry for.
posted by ericb at 8:58 PM on April 30 [1 favorite]

Heckuva job Bushie.
posted by jlowen at 8:59 PM on April 30 [1 favorite]

the forces of evil

Are you referring to the neocons or to al Qaeda?
posted by ornate insect at 9:00 PM on April 30

Protip: The political powers in this country have very little personal incentive to prevent terrorist attacks other than those that directly threaten them. Nothing bad happens to them or the power structure if there's the odd terrorist attack. September 11, 2001 was probably the best thing to happen for Bush's presidential term. So it probably shouldn't be all that surprising that at the high strategy level the anti-terrorism isn't so hot.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 9:05 PM on April 30 [2 favorites]

Dec. 7, 1941: U.S. attacked by Japan. 2,000+ killed.

Sept. 11, 2001: U.S. attacked by terrorists. 3,000+ killed.

Dec. 7, 1948: Germany, Japan and Italy totally, utterly defeated three years earlier. U.S. economy robust enough to foster never-before-seen worldwide growth, especially in areas affected most by war (within a generation, newly democratic Axis countries will be major worldwide economic powers). U.S. military sufficient to stem advances from new major threat in Soviet Union.

Dec. 7, 2008: U.S. likely still involved in seemingly intractable military and political engagement with groups within a country that had nothing to do with terrorist attack. Likely little will have changed within nation that did harbor terrorists involved with attack. Trillions of dollars will have been spent. U.S. economy might still be in downturn. Army certainly stretched to breaking point.

Wow. I mean, wow.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 9:42 PM on April 30 [4 favorites]

I grow weary.
posted by wrapper at 10:02 PM on April 30

Yes. But Reverend Wright people! He said something. It was like he alleged that the United States was not perfect.

And it is alleged that Osama Barack doesn't like doughnuts!

Clearly John 'War Hero' McCain must be president.
posted by sien at 10:58 PM on April 30

eriko: "We're not right back where we were in 2001. We're several trillion poorer."

Well technically a lot of that State credit is in the hands of private individuals, many of whom are American citizens re-injecting that cash back into your economy. An enterprising neo-con would call that trickle-down economics in action.
posted by gsb at 10:59 PM on April 30

Nothing bad happens to them or the power structure if there's the odd terrorist attack.

Like, for example, the 2001 anthrax attacks, which President Bush described as "a second wave of terrorist attacks upon our country."

Four Americans have died as a result of these acts of terrorism…The Postal Service and the FBI have offered a reward of up to $1 million for information leading to the arrest and the conviction of the anthrax terrorists…We do not yet know who sent the anthrax — whether it was the same terrorists who committed the attacks on September the 11th, or whether it was the — other international or domestic terrorists. We do know that anyone who would try to infect other people with anthrax is guilty of an act of terror…I’m proud of our citizens’ calm and reasoned response to this ongoing terrorist attack.

Even though President Bush himself called the anthrax attacks a terrorist attack--by Weapons of Mass Destruction, no less (anthrax was what represented by the vial that Colin Powell shook at the UN)--he and his supporters claim we haven't been attacked since the September 11 attacks, and Senator McCain will no doubt claim the same.
posted by kirkaracha at 5:33 AM on May 1

"a second wave of terrorist attacks upon our country."

Yeah. A second wave of terrorist attacks upon our country that for some reason almost exclusively targeted Democratic legislators and the press. Weird, that.
posted by saulgoodman at 6:29 AM on May 1 [1 favorite]

they are going to get a lot worse when Iraq's 5 million war orphans come of age.

Between that, the solidifying of Al Qaeda's position in Pakistan, and the drumbeat to push us into Iran, I think it's safe to say that the actions of the United States these last few years have ensured that we will not have any kind of peace or safety in the foreseeable future.

We've allowed it to go very wrong, and we are going to be paying for it for a long time to come.
posted by quin at 8:01 AM on May 1

I think this is typified by the following humorous interaction:

Me: I think the problem with the United States foreign policy is that we don't send the message that we care about what other nations think about our behavior.
Other guy: Why should we care about what other nations think?
posted by Deathalicious at 10:36 AM on May 1

PERINO: President Bush is well aware that the banner should have been much more specific, and said, Mission Accomplished For These Sailors Who Are On This Ship On Their Mission.

John McCain's speech which he delivered in 2003 on the Senate floor on the occasion of "Mission Accomplished":

"Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom demonstrated to the world what we saw just 12 years ago. We went to war as the most combat-ready force in the world. The value of that readiness is clear. We won a massive victory in a few weeks, and we did so with very limited loss of American and allied lives. We were able to end aggression with minimum overall loss of life, and we were even able to greatly reduce the civilian casualties of Afghani and Iraqi citizens."

posted by ericb at 11:08 AM on May 1 [2 favorites]

http://www.marriedtothesea.com/042208/oops-thats-not-funny.gif

"2021: A small group of rogue Americans hijack an airplane and fly it into the Burj Al-Arab, in Dubai. The United Arab Emirates spend the next five years invading Canada and torturing its citizens, eventually leaving over 80,000 dead.

Oops, that's not funny."
posted by cashman at 11:38 AM on May 1 [2 favorites]

ericb writes "PERINO: President Bush is well aware that the banner should have been much more specific, and said, Mission Accomplished For These Sailors Who Are On This Ship On Their Mission."

Also, Mission Accomplished for Bin Laden, because the US was pulling all troops out of the Magic Kingdom on the same day as this circle jerk press event. Take that, terror! When you mess with the bull, you get the horns whatever you want.
posted by mullingitover at 2:06 PM on May 1

Pentagon Considers Adding Forces in Afghanistan
posted by homunculus at 9:21 AM on May 4