John McCain, Name That Tune!

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeThe only other "opps" that has been bigger than the recent NIE for Iran was going to war with Iraq for no damn reason. That was the Mack Daddy of "oppses." On some fronts, (the fronts here in the US) the backpedaling and massaging of previous statements is in high gear. On other fronts, especially those of Conservative bent, have themselves gone ballistic. Morning Joe Scarborough and even one of the few remaining Nixon tools, Pat Buchanan, have actually stood up, donned their best Thomas Jefferson costume and called bullshit on the Bush Administration. Hell, now even Pat Buchanan is waving around the Downing Street Memo for crying out loud. PAT! The alleged Liberal MSM has been going round the clock on this story with an eye-opener approach. Most shocking to me was Chris Matthews last night who damn near knocked the NeoCon poser silly. When we as a nation screw-up our foreign policy so bad that is makes the likes of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad look like King of Morality, it shows our government is truly adrift. I swear to God, if Joe starts using The Dixie Chicks as bumper music on his show, it could signal the death rattle of the Neo Conservative movement. The real question is what will be the next song John McCain starts singing now that "Bomb Iran" is out of vogue? The Yellowcake of Texas? Hmmm....

Condi and Hillary - Separated at birth?

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeThe more I hear Hillary on the stump trying to explain why she won't commit to pulling the troops out by 2013, the more she sounds like Condoleeza Rice. Now we are dumping gas on the fire by banging war drums for Iran and again Hillary is lining right up with Bush on the issue - seemingly trumpeting whatever talking points Condi gave her. It is a damn chorus of destruction. To make matters worse, the Hymn to Pakistan was taken out of the songbook. Pakistan is the country to REALLY worry about. They ARE an Islamofascist country WITH WORKING nuclear weapons. Why aren't we worried about Pakistan? Well it seems because Rumsfeld says so. From The Guardian: Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz headed the Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States, which concluded in July 1998 that the chief threat - far greater than the CIA and other intelligence agencies had so far reported - was posed by Iran, Iraq and North Korea: the future Axis of Evil powers. Pakistan was not on the list, even though just two months earlier it had put an end to the dissembling by detonating five nuclear blasts in the deserts of Balochistan. It was also difficult not to conclude that Islamist terrorism was escalating and that its epicentre was Pakistan. The camps that had once been used to train the US-backed mujahideen had, since the Soviet retreat from Afghanistan, morphed into training facilities for fighters pitted against the west. Many were filled by jihadis and were funded with cash from the Pakistan military. It was made clear to the new president, Bill Clinton, that US policy on Pakistan had failed. The US had provided Islamabad with a nuclear bomb and had no leverage to stop the country's leaders from using it. When he was contacted by lawyers for Barlow, Clinton was shocked both by the treatment Barlow had received, and the implications for US policy on Pakistan. He signed off $1m in compensation. But Barlow never received it as the deal had to be ratified by Congress and, falling foul of procedural hurdles, it was kicked into the Court of Federal Claims to be reviewed as Clinton left office. The entire article needs to be read from beginning to end. It should be a MUST READ for anyone wondering why we are at war with the Middle East. And what is Hillary's position on Pakistan? They are a valuable ally in the war on terror. Now would be a good time for Al Gore to start hogging a microphone.