War Helps Recruit Terrorists, Hill Told (washingtonpost.com)

"Islamic extremists are exploiting the Iraqi conflict to recruit new anti-U.S. jihadists."—CIA Director Porter J. Goss

I don't know how to argue with the Bush fanatics who threaten to kill me, but I do know how to argue with the Bush voters who believed the bullshit about Kerry wanting to arm the troops with spitballs (which I like throwing at Bush bumper stickers now, not that the idiots would get the reference). Iraq was a war to make us safer. Now it has become a war to liberate a bunch of people who most right wingers don't give a damn about. And it is a disaster, not just in terms of the incompetence that has been orchestrating it. The concept of the war itself has become a recruiting tool for terrorists. By pissing off the moderate Arab world, we have removed the one line of defense we had, the moderate factions of the Arab world. Goss went on:

"These jihadists who survive will leave Iraq experienced and focused on acts of urban terrorism... They represent a potential pool of contacts to build transnational terrorist cells, groups and networks in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and other countries."

But wait, there's more!

"Our policies in the Middle East fuel Islamic resentment... Overwhelming majorities in Morocco, Jordan and Saudi Arabia believe the U.S. has a negative policy toward the Arab world."—Vice Adm. Lowell E. Jacoby, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency

Is this more incompetence? Are these top-notch neo-con minds in the Bush administration really inept bumblers who saw a chance for corporate profit and jumped on it, security consequences be damned? Or do they realize they need a long-term threat to return their favorite industries to the kind of long-term profit they enjoyed during the cold war, and to drain funds from "socialist" programs that do as Jesus suggest for the least among us? Maybe the only chapter they've read of that Book they claim to love so much is Revelations. Just like them to peek at the ending.

One of the best quotes on this subject has made the liberal e-mail circuit many times. I suggest we try getting it to as many confused, naive, terrified, and decieved Bush voters as we can.

"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."—Herman Goering