A truly sad state of affairs...

In order to avoid any confusion, let me offer sincere congratulations to the British intelligence service (and, according to what I read, the Pakistani intelligence service also) on their successful disruption of the recent terror plot. They are imitable example of what can be done when a society gets serious, rather than political, about fighting terrorism. When a society finds terrorists by following the law instead of creating fear among its citizens. When a government, no matter its ideology, treats protecting its citizens as the primary goal of its existence.

Back on this side of the pond, the response from the gestapo was swift and pathetic. Almost too swift. To quote the NYT,

On Wednesday, when the administration already knew that British agents were rounding up suspects in what they believed was a plot to blow up planes en route to the United States, Vice President Dick Cheney had a telephone interview with reporters to discuss the defeat of Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut in a Democratic primary. Mr. Cheney went off on a rather rambling disquisition, but its main point was clear: In rejecting Mr. Lieberman, who supported the war in Iraq, the Democrats were encouraging "the Al Qaeda types." Within the Democratic ranks, the vice president added, "there's a significant body of opinion that wants to go back. I guess the way I would describe it is sort of the pre-9/11 mind-set, in terms of how we deal with the world we live in."

This is the essence of power abuse - using the advance knowledge of covert intelligence activities to try to score a political point. Similar to when the bastards expose a lifelong covert operative, this type of leak can seriously harm the Global War on Terror. It's in fact completely different from when the New York Times blows the whistle on illegal government activities that impinge our civil rights.

Fortunately, it looks as though the general populace has taken this as nothing more than politics. What I think happened is that, despite their protestations otherwise, the all-spin zone gang realized that the result in Connecticut bodes worse for them than they can possibly imagine. There has been a lot of discussion on Kos, but anybody who believes that the Iraq War is/will be anything other than a negative for the administation in November is clearly not paying attention. The American public realizes that our presence has not only made the region (and hence our region) less secure, but the lack of capacity in our military has emboldened any number of potential enemies to do as they wish.

No longer is the Democratic Caucus at all split on the war - now that Lieberman has joined the GOP, we have officially differentiated ourselves. They want to continue doing whatever it is they are doing, as long as GWB wants to keep doing it. We realize that staying the course in Iraq only destabilizes and diverts our attention from the real threat! Their way involves handing out lucrative no bid contracts and settling old scores; our way actually involves going after the people who want to do America harm! Lest we forget,

During a news conference at the White House on March 13, 2002, Bush said something close to what Kerry quoted. "I truly am not that concerned about him [Bin Ladin]," the president said, according to the official White House transcript.