Iraq gets a too much damn ink. The constitution, elections, exit strategy, how prepared are the Iraqis, should we stay, should we go (if we stay there will be trouble, if we go it will be double)... these questions are vitally important to Iraq's future. But what about our future?
The real scandal since 9/11 isn't anything Dick Cheney ordered Scooter Libby to do to Valerie Plame, or anything we've done in Iraq. The real scandal is what we haven't done. Like train intelligence officers to speak Arabic. Secure our borders. Take steps to actually make airports safer. Update the FBI's woefully outdated computers. (Do you realize how much progress the FBI has made on the very tools that we use to catch terrorists in the U.S? None.)
Bush spent an entire election campaign telling us to be very, very afraid...
If you don't elect me, the terrorists will strike!! Well congrats on your victory, Mr. Preznit, but guess what? They're still gonna try! We haven't caught bin Laden, bin Laden dislikes us as much as he did before, ergo, something bad is in the works. Can we defend ourselves? Can we prevent an attack? Are we prepared? Who knows! Any news I hear about preparedness involves Iraqi battalions.
It's one thing to play up one threat, long proven false, to defend your decision to start a war. It's another thing altogether to ignore the real threats...
Twenty terrorists. Enter illegally from the North or South, or already here. Instead of box-cutters, suitcase bombs. Twenty major cities. Twenty safehouses (some known to us, but the relevant reports are trapped in an FBI database.) An appointed day, and appointed time. Planned by phone. (FBI happens to record one call; it's backlogged among thousands of hours of tape we don't have people to translate.)
[Boom.]
[Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.
Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.
Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.
Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.]
Since the President seems more concerned about Iraq than the United States of America, maybe I should put it like this: Mr. Bush, you know how if a plane loses pressure you're supposed to fix your own oxygen mask first, then the young children? Because if you pass out, the kids are screwed anyway? As Iraq's chaperones right now, we owe it to them to get our act together. Sir, who will nurture that young, helpless democracy if we're not around?
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