Just because terrorists are not attacking our embassies, and haven't flown any planes into buildings lately does not mean we are not being attacked, literally on a daily basis, by terrorists.
Americans are being killed by terrorists almost every day. The emperor Bush'ss idiocracy of neoconmen and far right court jesters were wildly successful getting us quagmired in Iraq,and now, almost every day, one or more US soldiers are killed-- killed, most likely, not by regular Iraqi soldiers-- but rather, by terrorists who have bled through the leaky borders of Syria, Iran, Jordan... even Turkey.
So... what we have is a situation that George Bush created in which almost every day, another American is killed by terrorists. And of course, we have George Bush to blame for this. Our natural borders have done and will continue to do a relatively good job of protecting us from mainland terrorism. We now know that if the Bush administration had not literally cancelled sharing of information between intelligence agencies (see: Information Sharing: Why Did Bush Coordinate All National Security Through Himself Via Condi Rice?) it is likely that the 9-11 plot would have been prevented, or that the planes would have been shot down.
So we now have situation where Bush and his bumbling handlers and advisors, funded in their think tanks by greedy, oil and energy billionaires, went from dumb to dumber to dumberer. They brought Americans to the terrorists, setting them up as easy targets. Our brave, idealistically patriot soldiers are now planted in Baghdad, tikrit, and the rest of quicksandland as easy targets for the AlQaedas, Hammas, Hisbollah and similar terrorist ilk-- all the Islamic haters who balance out the hate equation of the American far right.
These terrorists enjoy the luxury of almost zero surveilance coverage. They blend in, they walk freely in the streets, probably treated as heros by many of the Iraqis who are jobless, waterless, fuelless, without electricity... in other words, suffering at the hands of the US "rescuers/liberators" who totally failed to prepare for the conquest of Saddam and his forces.
I imagine that for terrorists, going to Iraq is comparable to a wealthy American hunter who pays top dollar to go to a game ranch, where he can shoot at wild animals that range the private property-- big cats, bear, deer, elk, antelope. But in Iraq, the hunters are targeting American Soldiers. I imagine that the situation in Iraq is one where the terrorists are enjoying a "target rich environment." Actually, it's amazing that more soldiers haven't been shot. Then again, we tend to only hear the news of deaths. The fact is, over 1000 of our soldiers have been wounded. While a big percentage of these were due to friendly fire and accidents, I believe that a considerable percentage were due to terrorist attacks.
This could of and should have been anticipated. But like most of the Iraq quagmire, the smart guys in the neocon think tanks-- those that are private and those government organizations infiltrated and over-run by neocons-- totally failed to plan for anticipate what would happen next or what to do about it. This incompetent, irresponsible, shortsightedness has put our soldiers in incredible danger. There is no excuse for this. And the responsibility ultimately sits with the president.
Of course we know how he will handle it. He'll shoulder that responsibility with macho swagger and then point the finger at three or four aides who were indeed seriously incompetent. Then he'll tell us that in spite of their abject failure, he still trusts them completely, and how wonderful they are.
This is not OK. These incompetents must go. A point has to be reached where even the lock-step republican congress must be able to see that they've been supporting an administration that has failed to protect the US. Worse than having failed, it has precipitated the US into its most vulnerable position it has ever been in, with military forces spread so thin we don't have the ability to effectively react if other emergencies arise. Our military budget has exploded at a time when states are struggling to pay teachers, when a shocking percentage of the public has no health coverage-- where people must chose between medicine and mortgage or rent.
We no longer have the allies we used to have. the Bush administration has pushed them away, insulted and abused them, so, for good reason, they are unwilling to help us out of the mess that Bush and his moron minions put us in. Of course, the UN, which Bush and the far right ideologues have tried to destroy, is also not helping us.
And the lies keep coming. But now, the people of the US are wising up, slowly, the percentages are creeping up, so that less and less people are willing to trust the president when he says he has "intelligence" that we don't know about that assures him that he is doing the right thing. And that failure of trust is a tragic loss that could prove to be the most dangerous manifestation of the Bush administration's failure to protect us, failure that has increased our vulnerability. Crying wolf worked to persuade the congress to give Bush a blank check. It will not work any more.
Everyone says that Republicans are stronger on protecting us from terrorism. It may be true that they are faster to go to war, more willing to spend money on weapons. But it is also true that they've shown themselves to be more like bumbling keystone cops than brave, and tough defenders of America. Part of a good defense is a good offense. But the best defense, the best protection of the nation uses diplomacy and intelligence to avoid conflict. One things' for sure, pre-emptive attack, like George Bush should have his name forever associated with, is a fool's strategy.
Rob Kall rob@opednews.com is publisher of progressive news and opinion website www.opednews.com and organizer of cutting edge meetings that bring together world leaders, such as the Winter Brain Meeting and the StoryCon Summit Meeting on the Art, Science and Application of Story. This article is copyright by Rob Kall, but permission is granted for reprint in print, email, blog, or web media so long as this credit is attached
