May 1, 2007 Back To Archives Go To Comments
Slam Dunk
Former CIA Director George Tenet has just published his new book, At the Center of the Storm. The book apparently covers a lot of ground, but the one thing that has garnered the most comment is his defense of the statement that the intelligence about Iraq's WMD's was a "slam dunk". Tenet claims that the administration has mischaracterized what he meant when he used that term. Tenet said on the CBS 60 Minutes program that what he meant by using the term was not referring to the actual intelligence the CIA had, but to the ease with which the the intelligence could be presented to the public. This of course sounds a bit dubious, since the National Intelligence Estimate of 2002 was pretty much in line with the rest of the world that Saddam had WMD's. So exactly what did Tenet mean; that he didn't think that Saddam had WMD's but it would be easy to sell the idea to the American people?
George Tenet was CIA Director under President Clinton, and President Bush kept him on the job, even awarding him The Medal Of Freedom. It is also true that Tenet knew a lot about Al Qeada, and claims that he suspected by the summer of 2001 that they were up to something. He also knew full well that Al Qeada and Iraq had many top level contacts going back into the early 1990's, or so he said in a letter to Sen. Bob Graham. The question here is not whether George Tenet lied or the administration cooked up evidence. Tenet met daily with the President as part of his job. When Secretary of State Colin Powell was at the United Nations, Tenet was there with him. The idea that Saddam had WMD's was highly likely and his contacts with Al Qeada not in dispute then. It seems however, that because the Iraq War is not looking well, everyone is engaged in classic "cya" actions. You only need to listen to the candidates to see that, or watch the funding debate in congress.
All of this defensiveness and all the accusations are part of the immense partisanship that is flourishing on Capital Hill these days. The nation is at war with troops in harms way, the terrorists have not gone away, the Iranian leaders still talk about destroying America, and what we get from the very top echelon of our so-called leaders is more obfuscation. Why is it that we aren't having instructive and positive debates about what to do? Why aren't the "leaders" of both parties sitting down and working out strategies for victory and advancing freedom and the interests of America around the world?
The reason is because the current crop of politicians are just about the most worthless group overall than any other group in the past 75 years or more. They are strictly out for power, fame, and wealth, and they either are truly ignorant about what to do next, or they really do not care as long as they maintain power for their party. It is time we realized that they have manipulated the entire election process to assure themselves that they will be elected. With no real accountability (because they have us convinced of their inevitability), they engage in the worst partisanship. When partisanship rules, leadership is easily shunted aside, and this is what we are seeing in our government today!
We are the rightful heirs of this nation! The founding fathers gave you and I the responsibility to keep freedom alive, and the authority to act, but we have abdicated those positions and allowed the nation to be taken over by an elite set of politicians, many of whom have held office for 25 - 30 years! The country is facing unprecedented challenges, but all we are offered is more Democrat/Republican propaganda about how wise these elites are and how we cannot afford to not trust them. Imagine, they created and allowed the situation to get to this point, and they now tell us we need to re-elect them!!
If we do not yet see the handwriting on the wall, then we are surely in for rough times. We cannot afford to elect another Democrat OR Republican in this upcoming election! If we do, the partisanship will become intolerable and there will we no leadership! Think seriously about it, very seriously!
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