Hoping Team Kerry reads Political Animal
Kevin Drum has 2 must-read posts today: one includes a State Department map (that's right, our State Department) from 2001. It shows countries in which al qaeda was active at that time. Lots of countries from the Middle East roster are present, but....notably missing is one large one. Three guesses as to which Middle East country our State Dept. said lacked substantive al qaeda activity? Kind of shuts the door on the preposterous rationale for war that Bush's Allawi was peddling to Jim Lehrer last night, doesn't it?

JIM LEHRER: What would you say to somebody in the United States who questions whether or not getting rid of Saddam Hussein was worth the cost of more than a thousand lives now and billions and billions of U.S. dollars?
PRIME MINISTER IYAD ALLAWI: Well, I assure you if Saddam was still there, terrorists will be hitting there again at Washington and New York, as they did in the murderous attack in September; they'll be hitting also on other places in Europe and the Middle East.

Don't forget, that's not just a slip. They really can't do better than that. If we hadn't invaded Iraq, Bush-fools would have us believe, terrorists would have continued to strike here and in Europe. Those terrorists really are stupid aren't they? Don't they know we're over here?

Someone tell the families of the 8,000+ dead or wounded US soldiers that their role in Bush's plan is as bait. We feed the frenzy with them so that we can stay, how did Bush put it, "nice and safe and secure." "Bring it on" makes alot more sense now.

Even if that flypaper strategy could somehow work, it would be a horrific way to use US troops. But, alas, it is a preposterous, impossible idea, akin to trying to kill all angry people. If you want to get rid of an entire group, Mr. President, so that they don't come back, try exterminating a race. Your plan is more suitable for genocide. When you try to kill angry people, it just makes more people angry...

The other must-read Drum post explains why the Kerry strategy that says Bush is either not in touch with, or not admitting to, the world of reality is right on target. In retrospect, the lack of planning and the misjudgments that were Bush/Cheney's predictions are truly astonishing. And nobody was fired. We'll change that.