Keep it to yourself...
October 17, 2007 6:31 PM Subscribe
Say WOT isn't working, need new knees. Three days after Americans saw the Bush administration's counterterrorism chief say the Iraq war has likely not made the United States safer from terrorism, the official announced his resignation, citing health reasons.
Just days after General Sanchez said the war was a "Nightmare".
This post was deleted for the following reason: there is already a post about iraq today and this post is not adding much new besides newsish updates. It's tragic and terrible but a post to a newsblog every 12 hours won't fix it. -- jessamyn
I don't understand. Is he saying that the enraged families of those hundreds of thousands of Iraqis wrongfully killed may harbor enmity for the US? That this could somehow make us less secure?
I don't understand.
posted by mullingitover at 6:45 PM on October 17, 2007
I don't understand.
posted by mullingitover at 6:45 PM on October 17, 2007
mullingitover: remember, though, that we are fighting the enraged families of those hundreds of thousands of Iraqis wrongfully killed over there, so we don't have to fight them here.
posted by UbuRoivas at 6:48 PM on October 17, 2007
posted by UbuRoivas at 6:48 PM on October 17, 2007
It's not everyday that you get another post to go under the Iraqusterfuck tag, is it?
posted by Balisong at 6:54 PM on October 17, 2007
posted by Balisong at 6:54 PM on October 17, 2007
Shouldn't it be TWOT - The War On Terror?
Clearly, Bush's TWOT is dysfunctional and has failed. It has given neither Bush, nor anyone else, any joy.
posted by sien at 6:55 PM on October 17, 2007 [1 favorite]
Clearly, Bush's TWOT is dysfunctional and has failed. It has given neither Bush, nor anyone else, any joy.
posted by sien at 6:55 PM on October 17, 2007 [1 favorite]
It's kind of difficult to say whether we are more safe or less safe. On the one hand, you have the war in Iraq, which is pissing off lots of Muslims, increasing the recruiting pool for terrorists, etc, which makes us more threatened.
On the other hand, we've rounded up all sorts of people, some of whom might have actually been terrorists, we've instituted all sorts of draconian clumso-facist safety policies, some of which probably do work. Combined with the destruction of Al-Quaeda's safe havens in Afghanistan, that probably makes us more secure.
The best way to think of safety, I think, is to consider it security*threat. A person with an unlocked door in a safe neighborhood is probably safer then a person with a good lock in a Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad. But unless you can put real numbers on those, if they go in opposite directions, it's impossible to actually figure out if you are safer or not.
Sadly, if we had looked at terrorism as military action, we probably could have greatly increased security without exacerbating the threat. And we could have saved hundreds of billions of dollars we could have used to protect Americans from threats they face in real life, like our shitty healthcare system.
Sadly, that would have neglected the Bush administration's most important metric: macho bullshit.
posted by delmoi at 7:05 PM on October 17, 2007
On the other hand, we've rounded up all sorts of people, some of whom might have actually been terrorists, we've instituted all sorts of draconian clumso-facist safety policies, some of which probably do work. Combined with the destruction of Al-Quaeda's safe havens in Afghanistan, that probably makes us more secure.
The best way to think of safety, I think, is to consider it security*threat. A person with an unlocked door in a safe neighborhood is probably safer then a person with a good lock in a Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad. But unless you can put real numbers on those, if they go in opposite directions, it's impossible to actually figure out if you are safer or not.
Sadly, if we had looked at terrorism as military action, we probably could have greatly increased security without exacerbating the threat. And we could have saved hundreds of billions of dollars we could have used to protect Americans from threats they face in real life, like our shitty healthcare system.
Sadly, that would have neglected the Bush administration's most important metric: macho bullshit.
posted by delmoi at 7:05 PM on October 17, 2007
On the other hand, we've rounded up all sorts of people, some of whom might have actually been terrorists
yeah, all the potential terrorists who wanted pure jihad and wanted to kill 'mericans were holed up in secular Iraq. They couldn't be just poor bastards whose neighbors turned them in for the reward etc. Iraq truly was the bullseye of terror and we hit, oh yeah.
posted by caddis at 7:10 PM on October 17, 2007
yeah, all the potential terrorists who wanted pure jihad and wanted to kill 'mericans were holed up in secular Iraq. They couldn't be just poor bastards whose neighbors turned them in for the reward etc. Iraq truly was the bullseye of terror and we hit, oh yeah.
posted by caddis at 7:10 PM on October 17, 2007
I have this vision of Cheney meeting up with Redd in a darkened parking structure and kneecapping him with an aluminum baseball bat.
"Your definitely not safer Scotty-boy"
Crack
posted by quin at 7:17 PM on October 17, 2007
"Your definitely not safer Scotty-boy"
Crack
posted by quin at 7:17 PM on October 17, 2007
The Real Iraq We Knew, By 12 former Army captains.
posted by homunculus at 7:35 PM on October 17, 2007
posted by homunculus at 7:35 PM on October 17, 2007
The war in Iraq?
Oh. Bad idea. That's agreed.
However, FPPosting that others are now realizing it, too, is less inspiring than you might imagine.
"War in Iraq," says person who was fooled in the first place, "was a bad idea." Right. Got it.
Now how about something about what's being done for peace?
posted by humannaire at 7:36 PM on October 17, 2007
Oh. Bad idea. That's agreed.
However, FPPosting that others are now realizing it, too, is less inspiring than you might imagine.
"War in Iraq," says person who was fooled in the first place, "was a bad idea." Right. Got it.
Now how about something about what's being done for peace?
posted by humannaire at 7:36 PM on October 17, 2007
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The sentence fragment had nothing to do with it.
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 6:37 PM on October 17, 2007