Bush Told Iraq War Has Helped al-Qa’eda
WASHINGTON - President George W Bush was facing increasingly blunt criticism of his Iraq policy last night as a US intelligence report suggested that the war has made al-Qa’eda attacks on American soil more likely.
Senator George Voinovich, a close ally of Mr Bush, delivered a withering assessment of the situation in Iraq, declaring that the Bush administration had “f****d up the war”. 
The Ohio senator revealed that he warned Karl Rove - the President’s chief political adviser - last week that Mr Bush must devise a new plan for Iraq or he would vote with Democrats on Capitol Hill to withdraw troops from Iraq.
He spoke out as a declassified National Intelligence Estimate of the terrorist threat to the US indicated that the Iraq war has helped al-Qa’eda “raise resources and to recruit and indoctrinate operatives, including for homeland attacks”.
The document, which represents the considered views of 16 US intelligence agencies, appeared at odds with Mr Bush’s repeated claims that America must prosecute the war in Iraq to prevent terrorists “following us home” with attacks in the US. The three-page report, two pages of which were released to the public, argues that “al-Qa’eda will probably seek to leverage the contacts and capabilities of al-Qa’eda in Iraq”.
The findings echo similar assessments of the terror threat from British spy chiefs.
They inflamed an already febrile atmosphere in Congress, where Mr Bush is haemorrhaging support from Republicans.
Mr Voinovich had previously indicated that he would delay any vote to leave Iraq until September, when General David Petraeus, the commander in Iraq, reports to Congress on the status of his surge strategy. But Mr Voinovich shocked political Washington, where personal criticisms and profanity are generally more muted than in Westminster, with the vehemence of his views - which he stated in the halls of the senate. Mr Voinovich, who meets Mr Bush and his inner circle regularly, revealed that he told Mr Rove the President must change course, or face a new mutiny.
“The President is a young man and should think about his legacy. He should know history will not be kind unless he can come up with a plan that protects the troops and stabilises the region,” he said.
He said other Republicans were close to speaking out against the President’s current strategy. “I have every reason to believe that the fur is going to start to fly, perhaps sooner than what they may have wanted,” he said.
Mr Voinovich is not the only ally of the President losing faith. Yesterday, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, owned by the hitherto loyal businessman Richard Mellon Scaife, branded the Bush administration’s plans to stay the course in Iraq a “prescription for American suicide”. In an editorial, the paper condemned Mr Bush’s performance at a press conference last week, in which he vowed to press on with the surge, saying “we had to question his mental stability”.
Democrat leaders last night ordered the Senate into an all-night session in an attempt to force Republicans to back a motion calling for troops to withdraw from Iraq by the end of April 2008. Later this week another motion, proposed by the Republican senators Richard Lugar and John Warner and calling on Mr Bush to get a new strategy in place by mid-October, is also due for debate.
© Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2007.
How is it that it can take over four years for reality to catch up with seemingly intelligent people. This is good news but also pathetic.
malatesta,
Good point. Why are these guys asking for a public dispensation now instead of four years ago? They get no sympathy from me, nor a pass.
“the Bush Administration has fucked up the war,” would be wonderful last sentiments for Senator Voinovich to express with the rope around his neck just as the trap door springs open
I’m not an elected official serving the people of the republic and yet I figured all of this out years ago. I really do not spend a lot of time reading articles on the war and the Bush administration and yet again I knew that Bush/Cheney f__ked up the war.
Even reading this article does not tell me more than I already know. American politicians are out of touch with the needs of the republic and have no sense of their duty to represent the people and protect the integrity of the constitution.
Bush has done America a needed service. The Bush/Cheney administration has revealed to the American people the corrupt nature of our entire political process and the necessity to make drastic changes in the way the process operates.
If the people do not move to impeach Bush/Cheney in the very near future dire consequences await our complacency.
What do you expect? Politicians shift with the winds.
Time to reap the whirlwind.
We have to remember which way the polititions BLEW!
Their ratings are below 30% that’s the only reason they are looking for another way to blow!
–
We read this in a foreign newspaper of course, this is news not fit for the U.S..
These Republicans probably DID figure this out years ago. They are rebelling now only because it’s politically feasible for them to do so. They obviously have heard from their party leaders and their big donors that it’s now ok to speak their minds. What their average constituents think is tertiary in importance. Always, always, “follow the money” when analyzing the words & deeds of politicians.
Email your senators and representatives to support impeachment of bush & chaney. Watch last Friday’s Bill Moyers’ Journal online. It was an education for me.
The “war” was fucked up before it started. We have to stop letting these assholes frame the discussion. If it were any country but the USA that invaded Iraq on fabricated evidence tha outcry from the world would be for war crime trials. Bush and Cheney must be tried for their crimes against humanity and the Constitution.
Bush botched the greatest attempted robbery in history (trillions of dollars worth of oil). So now his fellow criminals are really angry.
The war authorization bill that congress approved stated that Bush would go back to the UN for authorization prior to invading….he never did, so the war authorization is null and void.
congress never authorized an illegal invasion at odds with International Law
Do not let them off the hook next election, if they voted for the war back then but are refusing to start impeachment proceedings now, they NEED to be gone!
David–
Precisely. You’d think Voinovich meant to say that the war was a good idea and everything — good concept — etc. but it was the *execution* of it that Bush fucked up, not the very conceptualization of it from the get-go.
These political turncoats need to start being a little more genuine at the onset of bad ideas, and perhaps start thinking about helping the country for a change. Single-payer health coverage for all, Range or IRV, protecting remaining old growth, return of the habeas corpus, cleanup of ballot fraud and the electoral system, a national initiative — on par with focus of the race to the moon — to shift toward renewable energy, and so on and so on. But since they don’t touch any of that, I guess we’re meant to assume that they’re more unhappy with Bush’s execution of a bad idea than the bad idea itself.
But it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that violence creates more of the same. Voices in the wilderness have been saying that for decades, if not centuries. Indeed, it is violence — whether economic, political or military — that creates terrorism. Why the hell Bush wants to create more terrorists, almost giving them damned good reason to get increasingly desperate, and get experience on the field in Iraq — absolutely defies all analysis. Either Bush is a numbskull beyond imagination or he knows something we don’t, and is just having some nihilstic/sadistic kicks. The Devil’s First Coming, a giant meteor is going to hit us in a couple months, we’ve been invaded by aliens, or something?
How to find words to express the fear and loathing I feel towards 99.9% of official Washington. Dennis Kucinich seems to me the only one down there with the courage to tell the truth. The rest are complicit with the criminal administration to one degree or another. Saw a photo in the news this morning of Nancy Pelosi sitting next to the criminal in chief with a nice smile on her face . We cannot endure more weeks or months of criminal incompetence from these people. The agenda of the real American people (not the corrupt oligarchs who have been profiteering under Bush) is screaming to be addressed. If the Congress refuses to impeach, remove, and imprison the people must. Its way past time to set up a peoples’ tribunal to impeach Bush and Cheney.
How to find words to express the fear and loathing I feel towards 99.9% of official Washington. Dennis Kucinich seems to me the only one down there with the courage to tell the truth. The rest are complicit with the criminal administration to one degree or another. Saw a photo in the news this morning of Nancy Pelosi sitting next to the criminal in chief with a nice smile on her face . We cannot endure more weeks or months of criminal incompetence from these people. The agenda of the real American people (not the corrupt oligarchs who have been profiteering under Bush) is screaming to be addressed. If the Congress refuses to impeach, remove, and imprison the people must.
Hey Bakunin, let’s raise some hell like the old days before we lose to the fascists once again!
Paul and bakunin are right. But here is what we’re up against:
“We have about 50% of the world’s wealth but only 6.3% of its population…. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity without positive detriment to our national security. To do so, we will have to dispense with all sentimentality and daydreaming, and our attention will have to be concentrated everywhere on our immediate national objectives. We need not deceive ourselves that we can afford today the luxury of altruism and world benefaction…. We should cease to talk about vague and unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of the living standards, and democratization. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better.”
George Kennan, State Department memo, 1948
I say hang the lot of ‘em. Fat chance they will ever face justice, though. More likely that they will start a wider war and the patriots will rally round the flag. They haven’t anything more to lose with another roll of the dice. Every lost vote, every fascist rat that abandons ship, brings them closer to firing those Cruise missles on Iran. Don’t expect Captain Cheney to sink quietly beneath the waves with his ship of state…
These people who are changing their minds about the war now that there are elections coming
up are in a way worst than bush and chaney, at least they don’t change their minds for anything.
Voinovich said he wants “a plan that protects the troops and stabilises the region.”
That’s not a call for ending the war. That’s not a call for bringing the troops home.
That’s nothing more than a call for more troops, more money, more death and destruction, more shredding of American law and the American Constitution, all to accomplish an impossible goal.
Yes, Bush and the Republicans did everything wrong, and have created an intractable mess. But the Republican philosophy calls for making it messier.
The only people who can fix Iraq are the Iraqis, and the sooner we get out of their way and let them deal with the catastrophe Bush has created the better.
We can only hope for an enlightened, if not progressive, Democratic President and Congress to start cleaning up after these Republican ethical, moral, and intellectual creeps in 2009.
As for the Republican Party, I devoutly hope that it is circling the drain.
RE: VOINOVICH TO ELECTORATE
‘It wasn’t my war! I loyally supported my President and my troops in their noble and we believed necessary action - but when the ‘reasonable’ time came, I bailed! Check the record - washed my hands of it. See? No blood here, no blood here…no blood up my sleeve…’
His statments don’t mean squat. He is so bitterly dissapointed that Boy George Fuked up the war by not suppressing the rebellion that arouse. What did he expect George Bush to differently? Did he really expect Bush to shower democracy and freedom upon the people of Iraq with “shock and awe” Did he really believe that Iraqis were going to stand idle while we bombed their homes, hopitals, bridges, water treatments, electrical grides, schools? If only the Iraqis would allow themselves to be bombed, raped, and tortured things would be alot easier. He doesnt have a problem with the pre-emptive, illegal war. What he has a problem with is how Goerge Bush has executed it. I was OK to invade Iraq, we just don’t like how Bush went about it. Rediculous!!
It is not until Washington along with the corporte/complicite media start to address the real issues on iraq:
Immoral and Illegal war
We NEVER should have invaded and occupied Iraq
No WMD, No Chemical Weapons
NO Terrorist Links
No Threat to the USA or the world
The war was never saction by the UN…which by definition this is a crime agaist humanity and by the Geneva stadards a war crime..no better than what the Nazis occomplished in WW11
Simple as that.
It started out innocently enough. I began to think at parties now and then — just to loosen up. Inevitably, though, one thought led to another, and soon I was more than just a social thinker. I began to think alone — “to relax,” I told myself — but I knew it wasn’t true. Thinking became more and more important to me, and finally I was thinking all the time.
That was when things began to sour at home. One evening I had turned off the TV and asked my wife about the meaning of life. She spent that night at her mother’s.
I began to think on the job. I knew that thinking and employment don’t mix, but I couldn’t stop myself. I began to avoid friends at lunchtime so I could read Thoreau and Kafka. I would return to the office dizzied and confused, asking, “What is it exactly we are doing here?”
One day the boss called me in. He said, “Listen, I like you, and it hurts me to say this, but your thinking has become a real problem. If you don’t stop thinking on the job, you’ll have to find another job.”
This gave me a lot to think about. I came home early after my conversation with the boss. “Honey,” I confess, “I’ve been thinking…”
“I know you’ve been thinking,” She said, “and I want a divorce!”
“But Honey, surely it’s not that serious.”
“It is serious,” she said, and her lower lip began to aquiver. “You think as much as college professors, and college professors don’t make any money, so if you keep on thinking, we won’t have any money!”
“That’s a faulty syllogism,” I said impatiently. She exploded in tears of rage and frustration, but I was in no mood to deal with the emotional drama.
“I’m going to the library,” I snarled as I stomped out the door.
I headed for the library, in the mood for some Nietzsche. I roared into the parking lot with NPR on the radio and ran up to the big glass doors, they didn’t open. The library was closed.
To this day, I believe that a Higher Power was looking out for me that night. Leaning on the unfeeling glass, whimpering for Zarathustra, a poster caught my eye, “Friend, is heavy thinking ruining your life?” it asked.
You probably recognize that line. It comes from the standard Thinkers Anonymous poster. This is why I am what I am today: a recovering thinker. I never miss a TA meeting. At each meeting we watch a non-educational video; last week it was “Porky’s”, the week before, it was “Animal House”. Then we share experiences about how we avoided thinking since the last meeting. I still have my job, and things are a lot better at home.
Life just seemed… easier, somehow, as soon as I stopped thinking.
I think the road to recovery is nearly complete for me.
Today I made the final step. I registered to vote as a Republican.
uncommondream,
I like the humorous story. I had a similar experience, only my story involves a lack of courage. I played on the varsity basketball team in high school, and we were three points away from winning the championship basketball game, and I had the ball with eight seconds to go. I just did not have confidence to shoot a three-pointer, so I settled for a two point shot, missed, and we lost. Years later on the golf course, I had a chance to land the golfball on the green to put for an eagle, only to be intimidated by the lake in front of me. So I settled for par after I laid up short of the green. My son played t-ball and had a chance to win the game for the team with a double, but instead tried to hit a single and grounded out to first base. My wife always accused me of lacking courage, and my son seemed to suffer from the same affliction. No wonder why his favorite character in the “Wizard of Oz” was the Cowardly Lion. After years of thought, and many conversations with family and friends, I just had the worst time figuring out how I always lacked the courage. Then it dawned on me, I always voted for Democrats.
This guy has historically been a strong Republican/conservative “team player,” and it’s clear that he’s now triangulating in the run-up to the 2008 primaries and election, as he’s from a state with a slim Republican majority (and a strong Democratic/union presence, particularly in the urban areas). Check all the Repubs making similar noises over the past 2 weeks and you’ll find they’re all from states with similar political situations (Pennsylvania being another). Sorry to be cynical, but put in this perspective these remarks aren’t really something to become excited about.
“we had to question his mental stability”
I was saying this during the 2004 election. You do not have to be a medical doctor to see the signs.
uncommondreamer,
Brilliant, thank you. Now I think I have the courage to rid myself of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Emerson, Eliot and the whole lot once and for all! What channel is American Idol on?
RE: RIGHT WING DISTANCING ITSELF IN SWING STATES
David B July 18th, 2007 6:18 pm
Thanks. Beyond the general assumption that the right is scrambling to distance itself from CheneyBush to avoid further electoral losses, these specifics are very useful to know.
RE: ONE GREAT POST
Galdamaz July 18th, 2007 5:25 pm
I get absorbed by the duplicitous mentality of these guys, and, hence, tend to satirize their thinking. But that’s not always the best response - your direct outrage seems more where it’s at. Thanks.
This is fantastic news! It seems that there is hope even in this dark dark hour. Yes, it would have been better 4 years ago, but if this venture finally unwinds, it will be worth celebrating.
ezeflyer - That is a fantastic quote from George Kennan, State Department memo, 1948. I shall display this quote somewhere prominent.
RE: RIGHT WING “REALISM”
ezeflyer July 18th, 2007 3:55 pm
Yea, revealing quote.
The quote that hit me in the face was:
“The president is a young man, he should think about his legasy”.
Legacy?___ What!___ Is that what these idiots think about?
Bush already has his legacy, and he don’t have to think anyway; Cheney does the thinking for him.__ And that comment is not being facecious.
Paul B says, “But it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that violence creates more of the same. Voices in the wilderness have been saying that for decades, if not centuries. Indeed, it is violence — whether economic, political or military — that creates terrorism. Why the hell Bush wants to create more terrorists, almost giving them damned good reason to get increasingly desperate, and get experience on the field in Iraq — absolutely defies all analysis.” Hold on here, mister… like the scene in Excalibur when the voice asks “Who does the Grail serve?” Apply that to who war serves, and what master Bush et al answer to? WAR is their business, and the greater the mess, the higher the barometric read on massive fear, the more weapons you sell. BIG BONANZA for Carlyle’s weapons of choice dream (as nightmare) team. I know you know this whole shindig has NOTHING to do with democracy or Iraqi status… besides the oil, the evisceration of civilian liberties (absolute power as “unitary exec” about as quaint as erasing Geneva Conventions as per torture)are just cherries on their cake: PROFIT at incalculable expense to HUMANITY!
Uncommondreamer: If you’re not selling writing, you should be! Excellent satire.
CLAUDIUS: I’d like to share a short sports allegory with you. Many moons ago when I taught HS English I had a promising student whose aspiration was to become a baseball star. He took a bad injury that left one leg permanently shorter than the other and this caused him incredible grief. I drew a picture of a tree on the blackboard and asked the students what happened when its lower branches were cut? The answer, it’s forced to grow taller. I explained to David (my student) that life had cut off a branch, that of his hopeful sports career, because he had a taller goal to reach for. It helped him greatly.
Life can be so strange that in missing the desired shot (or goal) we’re really being re-routed for something more powerful or important.
American politicians are a**holes. They have more allegiance to
bullsh*t parties than they do to the country
“But it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that violence creates more of the same. Voices in the wilderness have been saying that for decades, if not centuries. Indeed, it is violence — whether economic, political or military — that creates terrorism.
There is one other aspect to the creation of the state of mind capable of terrorism- Hope. I think hope is more likely the supreme desciding factor… most of you know Iraq never, in all its history experienced a car bomb until we invaded. Never.
the point being bush didn’t quite succeed in his oil grab scheme.
When Dr. James Dobson starts to criticize Bush and the war we will know that even GOD has had it with George W.
I wrote this poem in August 2006 after I heard an NPR story (Morning Edition) about a boy being killed in Iraq because he did not properly display his goats according to some religious edict, and a grocer because he improperly laid out his vegetables. I don’t know how true the story is, but it was just too bizarre, and when I am not posting I sometimes write poems just to have someone to talk with about odd things.
W Reconsiders or
Maybe my daddy knew what he was doing back then
There once was a man named Saddam Hussein
And he was our country’s best buddy.
He vicariously killed Iranians for us
In a war so gruesome and bloody.
So what if he had to kill some Kurds?
Well, that’s the price that one must pay
It was the modus operandi
In a land so far away.
But like our dear friend, Osama
Hussein got too big for his britches
So we bombed Iraq and left her in ruins
But it’s not laughter that’s left US in stitches.
The country is torn by sectarian strife
The Shia hate the Suni
And everyone kills everyone
The whole place has gone looney-tuney.
A shepherd boy was killed as just reward
for failing to diaper his goats;
Bare-assed animals are more Satanic
than the verses that Rushdie wrote.
A grocer was shot because a celery stick
Made one think of an erect penis
And cherry tomatoes placed on the side
Made balls not fit to play tennis.
Democracy for Iraqi? Come on, Mr. Bush
It’s time with the people to level
After $400 billion and countless lives
Ol’ Saddam seems a right handsome devil!
And why is my gas so expensive anyway?
If the FBI had fought the Mafia the way Bush is fighting terrorist’s, they would now own the country! And the two entities are very similar in their structure (they are clandestine organizations). You don’t fight terrorism with troops and endless wars (even an idiot knows that)! It’s absurd and counterproductive. All he would have had to do was what the FBI did the first time terrorist’s bombed the World Trade Center! Use law enforcement to do the job. The bombers are in jail and have been there for quite a few years But, Bush couldn’t make a name for himself that way! He had to show a bunch of rag tag terrorist’s he was the boss! Now we are mired in a mess that is costing us a fortune in lives and money. It’s drained us of our resources to defend ourselves. He has wasted 4 long years chasing everyone but terrorist’s! Now all of a sudden we are fighting Al Quaeda again in Iraq??????? Why the Republican lap dogs have been this patient with this nut case is beyond me. Terrorism is growing by leaps and bounds while Bush fiddles trying to figure out what to do next!
Peacemaker: All he would have had to do was what the FBI did the first time terrorist’s bombed the World Trade Center!
You mean, provide the bomb?
Malatesta…Bakunin…
Where the hell is Kropotkin now that we really need him.
Lot of good points but I’ll just echo David and Kivals…the war was evil from the gitgo because the goal was always to rob Iraq blind. (And of course destroy it for their Likudnik pals.)
The “humanitarian” mission to “liberate” Iraqis was a fairytale for mental simpletons. Even the erudite become mental simpletons when driven by ideological delusions (see Christopher Hitchens). Anyone who scrutinized the background of Cheney & Bush knew that their sudden concern for their little “brown brothers” in Iraq was, shall we say, rather unlikely.
Now our ruling class realize that a pair of Laurel and Hardy sociopaths have screwed up the great Iraqi oil heist, and they are starting to twitch in irritation.
The Likudniks, (see Leiberman & Kristol & Wolfowitz, etc.) however, consider it a joyous success and call out, “On to Iran! Let us extend our gentle hand to our little brown brothers in Iran…”
And, admittedly, Dick Cheney (Oliver Hardy) has made a LOT of money off of all this slaughter…so it’s not all bad.
My grandmother use to say: “big talkers, little doers.” this surely applies to the good senator and surely to the Democrats who continue to leave impeachment off the table and play games, instead of cut the funding for the war off.
The good news is Republicans are coming around. The bad news is that it’s important that Republicans come out against the War because the other dominant Party has no teeth, no spine, no will to change events.
The funny thing about Voinovich is that he seems to believe Iraq is about our security, and that’s why he’s upset about Iraq. However, everyone knows it’s about oil. And, there is tremendous benefit to keeping Iraqi oil in the ground as it props up an artificial gloom and doom scarcity of oil — as brilliantly proven by Greg Palast in his latest book.
From the point of view of the real goal in Iraq — preservation of US wealth interests in the context of a volatile world economy hypersensitive to fossil fuel assets — the war is going perfectly. Defense and energy stocks are through the roof. Iraq oil remains in the ground as the instability means we can blame the lack of production on insurgent and sectarian sabotage.
It’s perfect for the right wing that aims to increase or preserve wealth for those that already have it. So, I don’t really understand what this Senator is upset about. Does he honestly believe this War is about safety for the American people in a War on terror? Maybe he sniffed too many Ground Zero fumes and needs some medical treatment in Havanna.
Wars are won or lost before they are fought……
SUN TZU…..THE ART OF WAR
I see that the rats, recently seen gnawing at the bones of dead and dying Iraqis and American soldiers, are bailing double quick out of the USS ‘Iraq’.