So Many Idiots, So Little Time...

Lots of good political items over the weekend. Where else to begin but with that party animal, Teddy K. In a speech to be given this evening, Senator/national disgrace Teddy Kennedy claims that America is more likely to be the victim of a nuclear attack because of George W. Bush. Wow! That's pretty tame compared to the RNC's claim that John Kerry will ban the Bible. Interestingly, the elder Kennedy claims that "it was a good thing Bush was not in charge during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962," a nuclear confrontation with Russia when Kennedy's brother was president. Base10 has read a little bit about this and disagrees. Many historians believe in hindsight that the Cuban Missile Crisis was handled very dangerously because JFK could not aford to be seen as soft on communism. One thing that can be said for sure, Teddy would have been better off had Bush been driving on one cetain fateful night in Chappaquidic.

While the boorish Kennedy is easy to ignore, recent statements by Kerry need to be taken more seriously. It seems that Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi visted Washington and the UN to urge the world to help his fledgling democratic country. Instead, the message he got from the Kerry camp--obviously part of their non-stop effort to give aid and comfort to America's enemies--was that he is a liar and a puppet. (More from Maureen Dowd, who called Prime Minister Allawi Bush's "Mini-Me". How clever! Why does she have a column in the Times again?)

Senator Joe Biden, perhaps realizing the damage that Kerry was doing to himself, quickly and strenuously backed off these remarks assuring Allawi that America would always be his ally. Nobody said all the Democrats were idiots. You never know what will drive someone to vote for Kerry or Bush, but Base10 thinks that his continued devotion to Islamic terrorists will ultimately cost him. Allah puts it succinctly.

Kerry's POV seems to be a case of the endless equating of Iraq with Vietnam. It's a quagmire just like Vietnam since the situation in Iraq is going very badly. It must be true if you read it in Newsday. It's not so obvious--and maybe downright wrong--if you read the Wall Street Journal.

One of the reasons for the growing pessimism over Iraq is the leak of a National Intelligence Estimate that paints a grim picture of Iraq's future. Some have speculated on the identity of the leaker. Aside from the shock that such a document can be casually leaked by CIA employees, Base10 doesn't think that there is a partisan war going on at the CIA. He merely thinks that the career CIA people are mired in Kissingerian let-the-despots-stay-in-power-at-all-costs-for-stability's-sake. When you have been committed to this philosphy for a generation, it becomes hard to deal with a visionary President who when faced with domestic attacks by extremists, no longer accepts this position as the natural state of affairs. Click here for a really good discussion on why this NIE is hopelessly out of date on Strategypage.com.

And there's more good news. Pakistani security forces have killed Amjad Farooqi, a high ranking member of al Qaeda who porportedly was involved in the murder of WSJ reporter Daniel Pearl. In a related item, four other al Qaeda members were captured by Pakistani forces. There is a tantalizing rumour that one of those captured is Osama's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahr. (Via Allah).

And maybe some disturbing news too. Iran and Syria are just ducky about getting some Iraqi nuclear physicists. Maybe this will shake up the Europeans. (Also via Allah. Base10 has been reading Allah lately. So?)


- posted by Base10 @ 4:20 PM