Oh, The Insanity!

Yesterday I asked a simple question. If the United States could invade Iraq with no concern for the consequences, then why can’t we just leave Iraq with no concern for the consequences?

I would like to take this opportunity to add some thoughts to what I wrote yesterday.

From War Without End by Helen Thomas:

Congress should wake up before it’s too late and listen to retired Army Lt. Gen. William Odom, former director of the National Security Agency.

NSA is the nation’s largest intelligence agency, which monitors messages from all over the world.

Odom testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week and urged an immediate withdrawal from Iraq. He claimed the troop surge (escalation) has prolonged instability in Iraq and that the only “sensible strategy” is “rapid withdrawal.”

In a separate speech last week, the outspoken general said, “We are certainly to blame for the chaos in Iraq” but “we do not have the physical means to prevent it.”

From GAO Slams Bush on Terrorism - says Al Qaeda attack likely and we have no plan by Max Bergmann:

Here is the title of a report from the Government Accountability Office on combating terrorism released today:

The United States Lacks a Comprehensive Plan to Destroy the Terrorist Threat and Close the Safe Haven in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

That is not some line buried in the report. That is the title. Wow.

This GAO report may be the most damning condemnation of the Bush administration's counter-terrorism efforts. The report goes on to say that the Bush administration has failed to develop any plan to address the Al Qaeda threat. Worse, the report finds that Al Qaeda is now able to attack the United States and represents the "most serious" threat to this country.

The report's opinion of the Bush administration efforts speaks for itself:

The United States has not met its national security goals to destroy the terrorist threat and close the safe haven in Pakistan…

Not only have we not met our goals but we have no plan to meet our goals:

No comprehensive plan for meeting U.S. national security goals in the FATA has been developed, as stipulated by the National Strategy for Combating Terrorism (2003), called for by an independent commission (2004), and mandated by congressional legislation (2007). Furthermore, Congress created the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) in 2004 specifically to develop comprehensive plans to combat terrorism. However, neither the National Security Council (NSC), NCTC, nor other executive branch departments have developed a comprehensive plan that includes all elements of national power—diplomatic, military, intelligence, development assistance, economic, and law enforcement support—called for by the various national security strategies and Congress.

Insanity!!! The right wing war machine has gone insane! We have an insane man running our country!

Wouldn’t the practical, logical, sane course of action be to leave Iraq and direct at least some of our currently misdirected vast resources toward doing something/anything about Al Qaeda?

Why hasn’t Bush been impeached? He is not only incompetent and criminal. He is insane!