or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
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"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
August 07, 2007
Bush Administration Official Confirms War On Terror Conceived As Political Ploy
Here's Scott Horton, writing for Harper's:
I attended [a recent conference] in Italy with a group of European and American counterterrorism experts. A large team of U.S. Department of Justice officials, drawn from its uppermost echelons, was there, including three of the principal architects of the legal policies for the war on terror. In not-for-attribution comments, one openly acknowledged that the war on terror was cast in the first instance as a political ploy and that it was a conceptual failure. It was now essential for the Americans to move on to something else, he argued. None of the others challenged that view; indeed, two of them said that they agreed with it. So even inside of the Bush Administration, the war on terror has been written off as a scam that served its limited political purpose and is finished.
As George Bush said on September 19, 2001:
...through my tears, I see opportunity.
Posted at August 7, 2007 08:11 PM | TrackBack
through my tears, i see opportunity
crocodiles are survivors.
Posted by: hapa at August 7, 2007 10:27 PMUgh, that's another Bushism.
What Der Shrubber meant to say was "...through their tears, I see opportunity."
PT Barnum and Ed Bernays must be so proud...
Posted by: The tECHIDNA at August 8, 2007 12:12 AMAND through that opportunity, we see TEARS.
Posted by: Mike Meyer at August 8, 2007 12:30 AMis it too early to say that we traded tears for fears?
Posted by: almostinfamous at August 8, 2007 09:36 AMum, i actually read that Harper's article and it attributes Newt Gingrich with the claims that the war on terror is a political ploy. Newt Gingrich is not a member of the Bush administration. I'm not particularly a fan of either, but it's pretty misleading to claim that a member of the administration is saying their 'security theatre' operations are BS. I'm just saying...
Posted by: DJ at August 8, 2007 09:50 AMDJ -
I thought the same thing, until I read the whole article. I don't think it's misleading to quote a portion of the article exactly as it's written - even though that portion isn't at the very beginning.
Posted by: Aaron Datesman at August 8, 2007 10:18 AMi actually read that Harper's article and it attributes Newt Gingrich with the claims that the war on terror is a political ploy. Newt Gingrich is not a member of the Bush administration.
The Horton post quotes an article about Gingrich saying the Bush administration is waging a "phony war" on terrorism. Then Horton writes that this reminds of him of the conference, at which the Bush administration official said the war on terror was a ploy.
Posted by: Jonathan Schwarz at August 8, 2007 12:03 PM
