What, everyone, did we learn this weekend? Other, of course, than the fact that anything grilled over charcoal
just tastes better. Well, we learned quite a bit this weekend, a holiday weekend centered around our nation's birthday. A holiday intended to commemorate our independence, our freedom. Quite a bit, indeed.
On a day when the president
told soldiers at Fort Bragg, "We will never back down, we will never give in, and we will never accept anything less than complete victory", we learned quite the opposite. We learned, in fact, that the administration was settling for something
far less than complete victory over Osama bin Laden. We learned that, since late last year, the CIA
had ceased a decade-long unit whose job it was to find bin Laden and his top deputies.
A program whose former head, Michael Scheuer, said of the news, "This will clearly denigrate our operations against Al Qaeda." Puzzling news that the administration was, in effect, granting amnesty to bin Laden - just like several of its Republican senators had those who would torture, mutilate and murder our troops - because we learned something else last week. We learned that bin Laden was back, releasing not one, but two audio recordings. We learned that the man responsible for September 11 remains relevant, despite our administration's apparent efforts to allow his trail to run cold.
Said Bush Tuesday, "Setting an artificial timetable would be a terrible mistake,'' adding that if the terrorists "wait just a little bit longer,'' we will give up. Funny, considering what we learned before the holiday weekend. We learned that not only was Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki behind a timetable for withdrawal, but so, too, was the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey. We learned that, while the president and his party were busy savaging the Democrats for proposing the only proper exit strategy in existence, they were busy adopting their opponents' plan. So we also learned that, according the the Republican rulebook, such obvious hypocrisy doesn't matter.
What also doesn't matter to Republicans, as the bin Laden news proved, is that the actual threats to America don't matter as much as lofty, yet empty, rhetoric. Because, while Bush was busy spewing hot air at Fort Bragg, we learned that North Korea was preparing to launch what eventually totalled seven missiles, including a test of the long-range Taepodong-2. A missile that, on paper, is designed to reach the United States. We learned that North Korea - whom, unlike Iran, actually has nukes - called our bluff, escalating an already festering problem. So we learned that while this president was pursuing an unnecessary war in Iraq and coordinating White House efforts to smear Joseph Wilson, he was ignoring or outright abandoning American efforts to stop the actual threats facing the nation in bin Laden and North Korea.
Makes you feel safe, doesn't it?