Taking the Presidential Eye off the Ball

Michael Abramowitz writes in The Washington Post: "The White House faced fresh political peril yesterday in the form of a new intelligence assessment that raised sharp questions about the success of its counterterrorism strategy and judgment in making Iraq the focus of that effort.

"Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, President Bush has been able to deflect criticism of his counterterrorism policy by repeatedly noting the absence of any new domestic attacks and by citing the continuing threat that terrorists in Iraq pose to U.S. interests.

"But this line of defense seemed to unravel a bit yesterday with the release of a new National Intelligence Estimate that concludes that al-Qaeda 'has protected or regenerated key elements of its Homeland attack capability' by reestablishing a haven in Pakistan and reconstituting its top leadership. The report also notes that al-Qaeda has been able 'to recruit and indoctrinate operatives, including for Homeland attacks,' by associating itself with an Iraqi subsidiary.

"These disclosures triggered a new round of criticism from Democrats and others who say that the administration took its eye off the ball by invading Iraq without first destroying Osama bin Laden's organization in Afghanistan."

The President and his neo-conservative policy-makers wanted to go into Iraq at the beginning of his administration. Going after al-Qaeda is a cover for that. It is a lie. And now we are paying a price. Al-Qaeda grows stronger, international opinion of the United States has plummeted, and we have stretched ourselves too thin to be able to take care of new threats.

This intelligence report was released as Democrats tried to pass a bill that would have begun drawing down the troops in Iraq. Republicans filibustered throughout the night on Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning. They thereby prevented the majority-backed legislation from coming to a vote. (47 Democrats, 1 Independent, and 4 Republicans--52 total-- voted to bring the legislation to a vote. 60 votes were needed to end the filibuster.)

Meantime, Osama bin Laden sits in Pakistan and plans, aided by the negative press we get throughout the Muslim world because of Iraq. We lost all the good will we garnered after 9/11. Lovely.