Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Worsens Terrorism Threat

[PerryChase]

Bush’s own spy agencies are telling us this.

Link to NY Times Article

Link to CNN Article

McCain not surprised

Sen. John McCain told CBS’ "Face the Nation" that, while he knows nothing
about the report, it would not be surprising if the Iraq war was a rallying
point for terrorists.

"Frankly, it doesn’t astound me that we would get an intelligence report that
if we’re not succeeding as well as we had hoped that that would encourage the
enemy," the Arizona Republican said.

Link to Washington Post Article

[bgates]

I had the opportunity to thank a wounded veteran for his service last week. First thing he said was, “no problem.”

Second thing he said was, “Don’t believe the media.”

Perry, this story is an attempt by the CIA to influence an election by leaking classified information. [McCain said he knew nothing about the report, because it hadn’t been released to the Senate.] If you were a patriot, that would bother you, no matter which party you supported.

You left out some of the McCain quote, by the way: “I would argue that we need to prevail in Iraq and that, if we fail, then our problems will be much more complicated,” McCain said.

[PerryChase]

I agree with McCain “that we need to prevail in Iraq and that, if we fail, then our problems will be much more complicated.”

However, it doesn’t mean that the hair-brained people who got us in shouldn’t pay a political price for their actions. I say that it’s time to let someone else fix the mess because the people in charge now are screwing it up even further.

[bgates]

Why do I get the feeling you would have voted against Lincoln in 1864 or FDR in 1944?

[ybc]

“Why do I get the feeling you would have voted against Lincoln in 1864 or FDR in 1944?”

Are you implying that Lincoln and FDR are also as incompetent as the current administration in everything they do? Hmmm…

[bgates]

That’s certainly the argument made against them at the time, while the wars they fought were going on. Lincoln in particular was savaged for being a hick elected with a weak mandate who stumbled into a war of choice that was far longer, bloodier, and more expensive than anticipated, damaged American relations with Europe, and led many Democrats during his reelection campaign to support an opposing candidate with a more distinguished military record who promised to bring the troops back home (out of Virginia). After declaring an end to major combat operations after Lee surrendered, an insurgent campaign continued to assassinate members of the newly formed Reconstruction governments and terrorize members of other ethnic groups for almost 100 years.

So, you tell me.

[North County Jim]

PC,

I’m inferring you are giving the intelligence agencies a lot of credibility here. If so, why?

[Anonymous]

PC and ybc, you are up against The Dynamic Duo, b “History and Current Events” gates and Jim “Data” the Realtor. Make like the French and surrender, because resistance is futile!

[PerryChase]

The spy agencies were never sure that there were WMDs in Iraq. The Administration decided to act on assumptions; in essense putting their doctrine of preemption into practice.

The intelligence agencies latest report cast doubt upon the effectiveness of the Iraq intervention.

The more press coverage, the better informed the public will become. Give data to the people and they’ll make up their own minds. It’s like real estate. We need to stop living in a bubble.

[PerryChase]

Is North County Jim the same as Jim Klinge who said that “superior” properties will be insulated and only drop 10-15%? I respect Jim who as, a realtor, is shooting straight with us; however, ever since he wrote that blob, I question his motives. Does he want buyers to feel confident about buying those “superior” properties?

[North County Jim]

The spy agencies were never sure that there were WMDs in Iraq.

Please educate us which spy agencies were unsure.

It would certainly not include the CIA. This was George Tenet’s infamous “slam-dunk” call.

It certainly wasn’t the agencies who supplied Sen. Rockefeller (ranking minority member of the Intelligence Committee) intelligence prior to his speech on the Senate floor and his subsequent vote in favor of authorizing force to disarm the Iraqi regime.

So who were they?

[North County Jim]

For the record, I am not Jim the Realtor.

[Anonymous]

Oops! My mistake, NCJ.

[bgates]

Your first para is a pretty fair assessment. There wasn’t unanimous agreement in the intel community (I’ll leave it to admin opponents to hunt down quotes, though). Like NC Jim says, the (Clinton-appointed, Bush-retained) DCI did call the case for war a ‘slam dunk’, so it’s not like the admin just made the idea up. Likewise, while the intelligence agencies have a very difficult and perforce very secretive job, and many of their successes may be kept hidden, they’ve had several failures in this area: the Indian nuclear test in 1998; the extent of Saddam’s WMD program in 1991 was a surprise as well. So the intel community is not infallible here.

Also, you don’t know what’s in the full NIE, because it hasn’t been released. In fact, no quotes from it appear in either of the stories you link – just quotes from anonymous government sources who say they’ve read it. Better information is good, so long as it does not compromise security; and I would expect that quite a lot of stuff gets classified that doesn’t need to be. So by all means, let’s make more stuff public. But don’t pretend that what’s been printed in your two articles is anything but a thinly-sourced hit job.

Robert Kagan says a lot that I agree with.

[PerryChase]

To you guys out there, you may not believe it, but I’m trying not to be partisan on the Iraq issue.

1) I hope that we succeed because for our national interest we NEED to succeed. I just don’t have any confidence in the decider for making the right decisions.

2) I’m mad at Bush for getting us into Iraq. It’s like buying an overpriced house in 2004. It seemed like a good investment at the time, but now you own the POS. What’re you gonna do? Rationalize the decision and keep it for the long run? Or sell now and loose big bucks? Either way the prospects are grim. Bush put all of our foreign policy eggs in that POS basket. He bet the farm and now we’re up the creek because of that.

3) When I hear George Will and David Brooks criticizing the Administration on Iraq, I know that we’re running out of options in Iraq.

4) I’m supporting a change of direction rather than a stay-the-course policy. To me that’s like the condo-converters hoping for an uptick in the market by 2008.

[Author]

Posts