Feingold to Petraeus: 'Don't Take It Personally' but Al Qaeda Wants Us In Iraq
Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) pushed both Crocker and Petraeus to disentangle Iraq from Al Qaeda. Neither enjoyed it. Indeed, when he asked Petraeus for his thoughts, the general quietly told Crocker, "Go ahead."
Crocker led with a crock. "Al Qaeda [was] well on its way to have the kind of base or save haven, unthreatened, to do the kind of strategic planning against us here," he said. There's no evidence for that. None.
Petraeus: "I think it's important to remember what Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden have repeatedly stated that the central front of their global war of terror is in Iraq." Stop right there, Feingold said: isn't their safe haven in Pakistan more significant? "I believe that, I go with our intelligence analysts because our focus is in Iraq."
Feingold knows very well it's unfair to ask Petraeus questions above the general's pay grade -- or maybe it's not, since the general has occasionally today waded into the territory of national strategy. But Feingold kept pressing him to make a judgment about overall national security, rather than Iraq, in order to get Petraeus to say the war is a sideshow. And there he ended up making his point: referencing the 2004 bin Laden speech that secured Bush's reelection, Feingold pointed out that Al Qaeda wants to bankrupt the U.S. by entangling it in Iraq, much as its Afghan allies in the 1980s did to the Soviet Union.
Comments:
Posted 04/09/2008 08:11am with
I was caught by the Petraeus quote -
“I believe that, I go with our intelligence analysts because our focus is in Iraq.”
Notice the complete anti-Trumanesque buck passing. Bush, we’re told, doesn’t tell his generals what they should do. Bush follows their lead (until that “lead” suggests an unwanted direction) as all Americans, we’re told, should. And in the same way, the lead general doesn’t actually lead, but follows the advice of “our” intelligence analysts, whose jobs have been shown to be even more politically compromised than the current crop of “How high?” jumping generals.
There are these ever present, but as yet undiscovered, underling “John Yoos” and “Joe T’s” that are leading America, through their advice and directions to the “who could have anticipated” leaders.
It’s the guy on the fourth floor, row seven, cubicle six that is responsible for America’s current state. America’s brave president and generals are not to blame. They’re just following orders or advice or something. Responsibility? That’s for suckers.