"Once is an Accident, twice is a Coincidence, and three times is a Pattern. If a setback is repetitive in nature, you're probably the cause (the good news being that you can therefore prevent it from recurring if you choose)."
I was looking into Juan Cole's report that Saddam Hussein's half-brother was found in Beirut by the Syrians before being handed over to the US. As Juan says "If there is an Arab city where US intelligence ought to have been able to find a high Iraqi official by itself without help from Syria, it should have been Beirut."
One report that caught my eye was that Al-Zarqawi Has Twice Slipped Net.
continued below the fold
It really makes me wonder just how serious the US is about capturing al-Zarqawi, especially when you read articles (thanks to
Cursor) like
this
Indeed, today the Bush administration's aim is not to win but to relieve itself of responsibility for waging a war that it began but cannot finish. Debate in national security circles focuses not on deploying war-winning technologies or fielding innovative tactics that might turn the tide, but on how we can extricate ourselves before our overstretched forces suffer irreparable damage.
and
this.
This war was, from the very get-go, designed to be a war of occupation and not a war for any other purpose. The constantly changing "goals," like the rabbit running ahead of the greyhounds, is proof positive. It was not deposing Saddam, eliminating the threat of Weapons of Mass Destruction, or implementing democracy: the true goal was establishing a permanent U.S. military presence in Iraq. Had any of the aforementioned causus belli been the real purpose of this war, our troops would have been brought home when the stated goals were reached. If Bush or these Neocons had a simple cursory knowledge of history, they would know that wars of occupation always develop into a quagmire.
You would think that after all the
trouble al-Zarqawi has caused and one failed attempt at capture, you would make damned sure that you got him at the second attempt.
ps. I have emailed Juan Cole for more information about his claim and if/when I receive an answer I will post it as a comment here.