0565 - Blather

Our Staff is alert, sophisticated, logical, and, of course, humble (necessary for appointment). Today, the Staff declares itself disgusted with the U.S. Presidential campaign, now reaching a level of stupidity not seen for a generation. Our disgust is non-partisan, as you shall hear. For the worst specimen, there is the unrelenting Bush campaign insistence that the invasion of Iraq was part of the “War on Terror”, a war they declare Bush is superbly suited to lead, despite multiple stubborn and crass errors of record.

The dictator of Iraq was a terrible fellow, but he was not – not – a Muslim radical Jihadist. Saddam’s party was secular, not popular with Osama bin Laden, and dedicated to wasting money on building palaces to Saddam, not mosques for radical Islamists. Forget about the now evaporated WMDs: suppose (which we don’t) that W and friends were misled by incompetent intelligence. Still, there was no evidence that Saddam was building an attack on the U.S. Worse, we had actual inspection reports proving that the reports of WMDs were phony. But either way, there was no, zero, zip connection between Saddam and the 9/11 attack and any other attacks on the U.S. embassies or ships around the world. Those were due to Muslim Jihadists, not Saddam. To confuse that issue is false, knowingly false, and very successfully sold to the gullible American public. Shame! Shame!

Now, we are also disgusted with Candidate Kerry. After much mumbling, he has said (we think) that if he knew then what he knows now, that all the WMD intelligence about Saddam’s WMDs was phony, still he approves of the Iraq invasion. In the name of all that is rational, why? The world is full of vicious dictators who oppress their people, and we don’t invade their countries (names on request). We don’t think Kerry is stupid, but we do think that he is afraid to speak the truth because it might cost the votes of those who think any war we are in (Iraq, Vietnam) must be supported even though wrong. As this column often says, people get the Government they deserve, and if they buy the Bush-Cheney stories, Americans will get four more years of being fed false terror claims. Shame on you, too, Kerry!

The undignified disputes about Kerry’s Vietnam medals and Bush’s non-service are stupid. We know well enough that Bush didn’t want to go to fight in Vietnam, and Kerry did, and got some medals (and Cheney got himself multiply deferred). It may surprise you, but our Staff Ethicist thinks anyone not approving of the Vietnam mess could take advantage of all legal means not to go. What the Swift boat group is angry about is Kerry testifying against the Vietnam war, which they didn’t like, on the stupid theory that if we fought it, it was a good war. And here again, instead of standing up and saying “I fought in the war and I courageously testified against it”, Kerry is mumbling. Stand up and say you were right!

What we believe is important in a re-election campaign is an examination of how well the incumbent has handled business, not what he promises. On that test, the Iraq war is a terrible botch. The Intel was false, the security preparations post-invasion were flatly non-existent, the anticipation of Islamist fury at U.S. attacks was absent – it is a botch. That’s our issue for the campaign. And as for Bush trashing all International treaties and creating a worldwide disgust at the U.S. and a billion and a quarter radical Islamist enemies, we’ll have to see you next week.

Next time: Islamist [OO #566]

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