A Reminder of What a Lousy Job Our Leaders have been Doing

The real reason I think Cheney is right is because the wrong strategy can help al-Qaida. There are things the US can do that would hurt al-Qaida and there are other things we can do to strengthen them and validate their strategy.

As it happens, the policies Dick Cheney has advocated and this White House has adopted has led to the former. In fact, Cheney has validated the al-Qaida strategy more than anyone else in the world.

Al-Qaida said we would attack oil-rich Middle Eastern countries - and Cheney did. Al-Qaida said that we would get stuck fighting these wars and squander our national treasure doing so - and Cheney did. Al-Qaida said our real goal was to occupy the Middle East and hold Muslims in the region down - and Cheney did.

Now Cheney promises to validate al-Qaida's strategy even more by attacking another oil-rich, Middle Eastern country. This would lead us into another unwinnable war, further occupation of Muslim lands and waste even more of our money.

Osama bin Laden made a tape right before the 2004 election. The Republicans and Fox News Channel spun it by saying Osama wanted Americans to vote for John Kerry (and the rest of the media went along). But that's not what bin Laden said in the tape at all. Quite the opposite. He said how happy he was that we had invaded Iraq and that we were going to bankrupt ourselves there just like the Soviet Union bankrupted itself fighting Muslim forces in Afghanistan.

And what did Americans do in response - we validated his strategy by re-electing George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. After the election, the Bush White House went further into Iraq, wasted even more money, started an escalation and now they threaten another war in Iran. Osama must feel pretty damn validated right about now.

The rest is here.