The thing about closed-minded fundamentalists and other nutcases — read “Our Leader” — is that they narrowly interpret what they see, hear, and read to fit their world view. The most famous example of this is the Bible, which they interpret every which way to Sunday in order to bolster their own notions and hatreds. Of course, people on the far left of the spectrum do the same thing; it is a symptom of any kind of closed mind.
That said, I find it interesting that George Bush decided to declassify parts of the intelligence report claiming that the Iraq war has worsened terrorism… he claims that it will show that the report does not say that.
Funny thing is, from what I can glean, it still does. It says:
We assess that the Iraq jihad is shaping a new generation of terrorist leaders and operatives… The Iraq conflict has become the ’cause celebre’ for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of U.S. involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement… Should jihadists leaving Iraq perceive themselves, and be perceived, to have failed, we judge fewer fighters will be inspired to carry on the fight.
The only difference here is the last sentence, which seems to say that if we defeat them in Iraq, there will be fewer of them. Otherwise, it’s the same thing: the Iraq war is a rallying cry for a new generation of terrorists.
Somehow, Bush is interpreting this to mean that the war is good, that we are safer from terrorism (as if we were ever unsafe, statistically speaking).
He is delusional. Period.
Meanwhile, the Clinton thing.
It was masterful. Now, at first I was applauding along with many people, wishing that he had lashed out at the right wing smear machine years ago; then it occured to me that Bill is carefully calculating his media strategy just as Karl Rove does so well. He is now free to be accusatory and tell it like it is, while Democratic candidates don’t feel so free to say what’s on their minds. (I wish they would, they’d win my vote instantly.)
So, Bill Clinton times his tirade just right, going on Fox News — hardly a sympathetic media outlet and one he hasn’t granted an interview to in recent memory — and defending his record on terrorism, poking hole in the Republican tendency to blame everything on him, even things that happened in the second term of his successor. And I think that the time is ripe, because along with everything else that the Republicans have to answer for, I believe that the American citizenry are finally sick and tired of the Right’s continual attempts to Blame It On The Clintons.™
As much as I detested Bill Clinton’s pandering to the right and his tendency to triangulate and trim, I desperately wish he were able to run for president again. Hillary? Not so keen, sorry. I find her right-wing pandering far too over the top and she doesn’t seem to have any real convictions unless they are politically expedient.
Meanwhile, Condoleeza Rice’s whiny response to Clinton’s tirade?
“We were not left a comprehensive strategy to fight al-Qaida.”
Oh, no! You mean, after all the muckraking and name calling and outrageous slander that the Bush campaign slung at Bill Clinton, who was not even running for the office, you are whiny and upset because he didn’t leave you a packet of instructions? You people came into office and immediately started to dismantle Clinton’s work and policies, and now you’re complaining that he didn’t hold your hand and point to toward bin Laden?
I am so freakin’ sick and tired of this White House blaming every one of their mistakes on someone else.
