"Slam Dunk!"

[TheMercenary]

http://drudgereport.com/flash8.htm

Tough crap. He should have thought of that when he said it.

[elSicomoro]

I wish the President would take more responsibility for his fuckups, rather than trying to hang it on others or fate.

[xoxoxoBruce]

If only I hadn't said the jeans made her ass look fat.......

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by sycamore

I wish the President would take more responsibility for his fuckups, rather than trying to hang it on others or fate.

Not a point to be missed, I would agree with you. But any president is only as good as those he surrounds himself with and those around him need to be subject matter experts in the areas they represent. If the DCI can't be a subject matter expert on all things dealing with intel than the whole system is fk'd. I think he failed to surround himself with the best experts. Most post-9/11 texts say that the bulk of intel estimates did not support the notion that 1) there were WMD and 2) that going into Iraq was a good idea. I wonder how things would have turned out if Clinton was successful in staging the overthrow of Iraq in the 90's. We had troops on the ground and everything in place. Everything was there to support the generals and the whole thing fell apart. Either way it would have beat sending in our Armies.

[TheMercenary]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/27/wa...jUjbLqwT70BviA

[xoxoxoBruce]

Clinton? It was Bush 1 running the show when we were in a position to dump Saddam.

[tw]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

But any president is only as good as those he surrounds himself with and those around him need to be subject matter experts in the areas they represent. If the DCI can't be a subject matter expert on all things dealing with intel than the whole system is fk'd. I think he failed to surround himself with the best experts.

Of course. 85% of all problems are directly traceable to top management. There is no 'plenty of blame to go around' except when top management casts blame elsewhere.

Pres Cheney got the people he wanted. As head of George Jr's committee to recruit a staff, Cheney selected himself as VP. His people properly reflected exactly what Cheney wanted including removal of Saddam.

Saddam was in power because of mistakes made by Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, et al in 1991. In 2003, I was asking, "They could not be so stupid as to make the same mistake again." But they did. Cheney needed to fix his legacy - his 1991 mistakes. He even got people such as Feith to constantly proclaim evil from Saddam.

Reality: Saddam was on the verge of collapse. Saddam's position in Iraq was so tenuous that Saddam was more worried about Iraqi revolution even as American tanks were doing "Thunder Runs" through Baghdad. Containment worked even after Cheney et al so screwed up. Clinton's 1998 attack on Iraq is now known to have come very close to disposing of Saddam. Saddam's biggest threat after 1996 was the Iraqi people.

Cheney could not know that. In good extremist tradition, Cheney had already decided what was truth years previous. Cheney, et al were looking everywhere for facts to prove their 'truth' rather than seek reality.

85% of all problems are directly traceable to the top man - Cheney. No wonder he surrouned himself with so many anti-American extremists who demanded from Tenent what they needed for a political agenda and to correct their legacy.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Clinton? It was Bush 1 running the show when we were in a position to dump Saddam.

True when you consider the Gulf War 1. During Clinton's run as king he set up and planned a failed coup d'état. It was directly aided by military members on the inspection teams both overt and covert. It failed at the last minute and the generals in on it were executed and thousands were slaughtered in the southern part of the country.

[tw]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

During Clinton's run as king he set up and planned a failed coup d'état. ... It failed at the last minute and the generals in on it were executed and thousands were slaughtered in the southern part of the country.

Thousands were not slaughtered in southern Iraq for an alleged coup. But thousands (estimates are between 10,000 and 20,000 just in Basara) were massacred when Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc failed to do their job in 1991 - failed to plan for the peace. "America does not do nation building" is a violation of basic military doctrine - advocated by a mental midget that TheMercenary loves.

How convenient. TheMercenary forgets hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis because George Jr invents mythical threats. TheMercenary cites a trivial and alleged coup when we are discussing thousands of dead American soldiers, hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis, and 4 million refugees all created for the glory of George Jr and wacko extremism.

Where do we go to find death figures worse than that? The killing field of Cambodia - created after Nixon's invasion of Cambodia caused that government's destruction? How many were killed needlessly in Nam again for a 'big dic' political agenda? What other American president wantonly kills so many others? We only have two - and TheMercenary loves both of them - Nixon and George Jr.

Why does TheMercenary desperately grasp at an alleged coup when he openly advocates dead American soldiers to protect George Jr's legacy. He calls it watching the grass grow. How condescending to cite an alleged coup while ignoring what George Jr has done to millions in the name of his wacko extremist political agenda: Mission Accomplished.

In 1991, Cheney et al created a massacre of tens of thousands in Basara due to contempt for basic intelligence and American principles. They used a political agenda. In 2003, they did the exact same mistake. This time hundreds of thousands died. Desperately seeking to condemn or blame others, TheMercenary drudges up an alleged failed coup. Where is the category for reality in a head that constantly posts "bullshit"?

When it comes to creating death, destruction, ethnic cleansing, and millions of refugees, ... oh ... that was god's chosen president. So TheMercenary can post anything irrelevant to deflect criticism from George Jr. Hundreds of thousands dead? Irrelevant? A political agenda is so much more important!

Show me how Clinton massacred millions for his legacy. What will you use this time to justify your scorn for reality - aluminum foil, references to excrement? What mockery will you respond with this time? What do you post next to promote and protect the scumbag president and his pack of liars? This tone justified by TheMercenary's disdain for human life and contempt for the American soldier. At what point does TheMercenary finally grasp reality; dispose of an anti-American political agenda?

[TheMercenary]

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/ar...TICLE_ID=55139

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story...579838,00.html

http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/05/11/int05045.html

[TheMercenary]

Ex-CIA Officers Among Tenet Critics

By Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 1, 2007; A06



George J. Tenet's close friends said he anticipated criticism for some of the claims and anger he expressed in his new memoir about his former life as director of the CIA. He did not expect, they said, that his detractors would include former CIA and military officers, or that he would be blamed for the deaths of U.S. troops fighting a war in Iraq that he knew had been badly planned from the start.

As his book, "At the Center of the Storm," debuted yesterday, six former CIA analysts called on Tenet to donate a significant portion of royalties to families of service members killed or wounded in Iraq. They also called on him to return the Presidential Medal of Freedom he was awarded in December 2004.

The signed letter chastised Tenet for bottling up criticism of the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq war for three years and then publicly focusing on how the White House may have sullied his reputation. The letter -- written by officers who have been vocal in their opposition to the war -- was widely circulated by e-mail to CIA and military veterans groups and blogs. Several former CIA officers who worked closely with Tenet in the run-up to the war said they agreed with the letter but did not want to become embroiled in a public fight with their former boss.

"What about the 3,000 Americans who are dead in Iraq?" asked a former senior CIA officer who left the agency shortly after Tenet resigned in 2004. "Where's George's sympathy for them? I think he is a guy that did care and tried to do the right thing, but he didn't have the moral courage to stand his ground when you need to."

Much of the criticism centered not only on the memoir but also on an interview Tenet gave to CBS News's "60 Minutes" Sunday night to promote it.

In the book, and during the sometimes combative interview, Tenet said there was never significant debate among President Bush's top advisers about the threat Iraq posed before the invasion. He wrote that the White House had no strategy for the post-invasion period and that senior CIA analysts had warned Bush and others in the administration that a chaotic postwar situation in Iraq would be exploited by al-Qaeda.

But Tenet did not say those things publicly at the time of his resignation, when Bush was running for reelection and championing progress in Iraq, and he remained publicly silent for three years, until he completed the book, which garnered a $4 million advance.

Mark Lowenthal, a former Tenet adviser at the CIA, said Tenet's silence was appropriate. "You don't go out slamming the door. George saying these things or not saying them is not going to save a single life in Iraq; that's just silly."

W. Patrick Lang, a retired Army colonel and former Middle East analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency, said he was most bothered by Tenet's explanation of his use of the phrase "slam dunk" in December 2002 during a meeting with Bush about the case for war. Bush administration officials have said Tenet was describing the intelligence on Iraq's alleged weapons programs, but Tenet said he was explaining the ease with which a public case for war could be made.

"An intelligence officer should not be in the business of selling a war to the American people," Lang said.

John Moseman, Tenet's former chief of staff, said the book is "a valid attempt to balance a record that has been badly distorted." He added, "Most of these people haven't read the book yet, but if they take a breath and read the book they will see that George takes a fair amount of responsibility."

Perhaps most upsetting, Moseman and Lowenthal said, was Jeff Danziger's political cartoon yesterday, which tied Tenet directly to the mounting American deaths in Iraq. Above a caption that reads: "George Tenet passes out some complimentary copies of his book," is a drawing of Tenet placing books on the headstones of U.S. troops killed in Iraq.

The CIA stayed out of the controversy yesterday, issuing a statement that honored Tenet's service and noting that his final years of leadership occurred during an intense and challenging time. "Through it all, he never wavered in his concern for the mission of the Agency or in his dedication to its people."


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...001731_pf.html

[tw]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

In the book, and during the sometimes combative interview, Tenet said there was never significant debate among President Bush's top advisers about the threat Iraq posed before the invasion. He wrote that the White House had no strategy for the post-invasion period and that senior CIA analysts had warned Bush and others in the administration that a chaotic postwar situation in Iraq would be exploited by al-Qaeda.

Basic facts that return to three simple Military Science 101 questions. Supporters of the mental midget will not answer these questions because these questions are too complex for extremists.

What is the smoking gun that justified war?

What is the strategic objective?

What is the exit strategy defined by that strategic objective?

Why so much silence from those who advocate more war in Iraq?

And why do extremist lovers of torture and secret prisons not answer another simple questions such as "When do we go after bin Laden?"

Why do they fear to answer such questions? Instead people who would blow the whistle are attacked? Tenent is not preaching the political agenda. Therefore everything he says must be evil?

Why can't the real problem answer some simple questions? How many years have I been posting these questions and George Jr supporters pretend they don't exist? So instead we blame Tenent?