Well, it's official. The actions of George W. Bush have made terrorism and jihadism "mushroom" around the world.
Yet another massive failure in the sad, pathetic life of George W. Bush, a man who has "failed upwards" his entire life.
The "War on Terror"? Apparently Bush has not only lost that "war" of which he's so proud, he has actually increased the number of those on the "enemy" side.
How many so-called "war presidents" have actually done that?
I mean, think about it. After four years of fighting Japan, were there actually MORE Japanese soldiers willing to give their lives to fight the U.S.?
After four years of battling Nazi Germany, were there actually MORE Nazis lining up to kill Americans?
No. Bush is the only leader to have ever INCREASED his enemies by going to war with them.
The story is right here, from Reuters:
A National Intelligence Estimate completed in April says Islamic radicalism has mushroomed worldwide and cites the Iraq war as a reason for the spread of jihad ideology, the newspaper reported.
"The estimate concludes that the radical Islamic movement has expanded from a core of Qaeda operatives and affiliated groups to include a new class of 'self-generating' cells inspired by al Qaeda's leadership but without any direct connection to Osama bin Laden or his top lieutenants," the newspaper said.
The Times cited more than a dozen U.S. government officials and outside experts with knowledge of the classified document.
According to the article, The National Intelligence Council is the primary strategic think tank for the U.S. intelligence community.
Doesn't that just make you feel great, that we're spending billions of dollars a month, we're losing American soldiers almost every day, and it's all increasing the enemy rather than reducing them?
Perhaps this single paragraph from the new Harper's magazine can shed some light on how this works. The article is called "American Gulag -- Prisoners' tales from the War on Terror" by Eliza Griswold. The article is mainly about the deliberate black hole of non-legality created for the torture and abuse of prisoners, many of whom are completely innocent, and the repercussions of this. "Blowback" if you will. I'll let the author speak for herself about the meat of this article:
For the foreseeable future we will be unable to ascertain what goes on in places like Guantanamo without taking some extraordinary measures. Not even the Red Cross is allowed in to the CIA black sites or shipboard brigs, and the organization does nont visit the "forward operating bases" where many abuses occur. Red Cross workers are permitted into Guantanamo only on the condition that they not discuss what they see there. Therefore we must turn to the lawyers who attempt, despite intentional and ridiculous obstacles, to provide these prisoners with the representation to which they are entitled under both U.S. and international law. To learn about life at U.S. detention centers, one of these, Tina Monshipour Foster, who as an attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights organized more than 500 pro-bono lawyers to represent the detainees at Guantanamo, recently traveled not to Cuba but to Bahrain, Yemen, and Afghanistan, so that she might speak with some of the few to be released. I went along.
"The few to be released". These are people who suffered first hand the very abuses which George Bush and our "rebellious" and "maverick" GOP senators recently agreed are prudent means of fighting this war. This war which is creating more enemies every day.
The author's encounter with the man described here simply says all that we need to know:
One afternoon, as the lawyers sat in the canteen at their guesthouse, a Talib arrived on crutches from Kaandahar. Terrified and angry, he didn't look like the other tribesmen and had trouble convincing the guard at the guesthouse to let him in. The Talib refused to give his name. He said that he wanted help in freeing his brother from Bagram. He said that a Bagram guard had used a cell phone to take a photograph of his brother's pulverized face, and that if no one would help him he was considering becoming a suicide bomber.
So there it is. This is how George Bush, with the appeasement of our Congress, is losing the war on terror. Not only losing it, but escalating it -- literally creating more enemies with every action they take.
Bush and the Republicans are like the Johnny Appleseeds of terror.
And those Democrats who don't oppose them? Well, like MLK said, if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.