September 27, 2006
BUSH GETS TO CHOOSE HIS REALITY:
Excerpts of secret report released (9/26/06, Reuters)
The war in Iraq has bred deep resentment in the Muslim world and provided Islamist militants with a "cause celebre" that allowed the global movement to cultivate supporters, according to excerpts of a secret intelligence report released on Tuesday. [...][T]he declassified section, which contained 10 judgments about global terrorism including one on Iraq, reached no sweeping conclusion about the war's ultimate effect on global terrorism.
Here's a toughie: Is it the bureaucracy or the media that is actually this confused?
Neither is confused. The bureaucracy is incompetent, and the media are scoundrels.
Posted by: Jim in Chicago at September 28, 2006 12:52 AMI vote for both.
Posted by: jd watson at September 28, 2006 5:44 AMThe next act of this little drama: The next leak or two, Bush &co do the same thing-- release the document after a day or two showing just how biased and selective the original leak reporting was. This discredits the press even further. Then there's a leak where he doesn't release, so the press and the Leftists (redundant, I know) leap to the conclusion, "This time we're right, and he's hiding something!" After a few weeks, as the cresendo approaches, the document is finally leaked, and it again proves to be about nothing. At which point the vast majority of us lose whatever interest there may have been in any leak. (There's a medical term for immunization by small weak doses of the disease, and that's what the Administration seems to be doing.)
Posted by: Raoul Ortega at September 28, 2006 9:31 AM