Won't Be Neoconned Again

(Cross-posted at MyDD)

I noticed something today. I noticed that something very interesting happened on this day seven years ago. Think Progress reminded me about it.

Today marks seven years since the day President Bush received a President’s Daily Brief entitled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” (See the memo here.) At the time, Bush was vacationing at his ranch in Crawford, TX and stayed on vacation the rest of August 2001.

Of course, our nation would be attacked by al-Qaeda terrorists the following month. But instead of investigating the leads provided by these memos given to the Bush Administration earlier in 2001, they did nothing. And have the Bushies even learned from their earlier mistakes as they embarked upon their "GWOT"?

As I was remembering that memo our President received seven years ago today, I was thinking about another massive intelligence failure of this Administration. Specifically, I was thinking of this.

"The White House had concocted a fake letter from Habbush to Saddam, backdated to July 1, 2001. It said that 9/11 ringleader Mohammad Atta had actually trained for his mission in Iraq -- thus showing, finally, that there was an operational link between Saddam and al Qaeda, something the Vice President's Office had been pressing CIA to prove since 9/11 as a justification to invade Iraq. There is no link. The letter also mentioned suspicious shipments to Iraq from Niger set up with al Qaeda's assistance. The idea was to take the letter to Habbush and have him transcribe it in his own neat handwriting on a piece of Iraq government stationery, to make it look legitimate. CIA would then take the finished product to Baghdad and have someone release it to the media.

"Even five years later, [Rob] Richer remembers looking down at the creamy White House stationery on which the assignment was written. 'The guys from the Vide President's Office were just barraging us in this period with one thing after another: run down this lead, find out about that. It was nonstop. Of course, this was different. This was creating a deception.'"

Apparently, we have even more evidence that the Bush White House misled the nation into the current failed occupation of Iraq. But really, should we be surprised? Unfortunately, they've developed a penchant for deceiving the American people.

Obviously, we've been "neoconned". By way of a rigid set of thinking that led the Bush White House to ignore real threats to manufacture false threats, we're failing miserably in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Oh yes, and thanks to all our money being diverted to the failed Iraq occupation instead of being used here at home, our nation is no safer now than it was before 9/11.

So what can we do to fix this mess that the Bush Administration got us into? Well, we can start by not being "neoconned" again. Believe it or not, John McCain is a neoconservative. He doesn't seem interested in ending the Iraq occupation. He'd rather continue pursuing his megalomaniac, imperialist fantasy than focus on our real security crises. Now who does John McCain sound like? Anyone want to guess?




We've been neoconned once before, but we can't afford to be neoconned again. John McCain is just as dangerous as George W. Bush. He wants to continue Bush's "foreign policy" of endless war while continuing to ignore our real security concerns abroad and at home.

So do we want more failure? or are we ready for real change? I think you know what to do.

:-)