Semantics of “Historical” and “Actionable”

Salaam Alaikum!

I’ve read only a few pages from the book. So far, the book seems to raise some pertinent and portent inquires of consideration. However, like Richard Clarke’s politically intriguing and intellectually permeating book, Bob Woodward will be attacked (although he is a journalist) on his motives and political convictions. A sad but prevalent tactic by most zealous conservatives who abscond into techniques that only seeks to essentially throw blame on the former administration (Clinton) than to shed criticism on the current.

[Note: Watching Hannity and Colmes on FNC, I witnessed Sean Hannity spend 3 segments on how “liberals” have a clear niche for attacking the Bush Administration for sinister reasons. Frankly (like always), he devotes too much attention and air time to political conspiracy beliefs than looking into the broader perspective that liberals, moderates, centrists, and (yes) some conservative’s project.]

Ends

well said nasah!

Freethinker:

Maureen Dowd is right -- Bob Woodward is channeling for Colin Powell....

.....but the fact is that Colin Powell CRIME was worst than the crime committed by that stupid moron from Texas -- because Colin KNEW BETTER or should have known better .......than that Texas Dimwit...

Mr. Colin Powells` impassioned appeal to the Security Council pleading thru his Lilly WHITE LIES -- asking the Counil members to become ACCESSORIES to the CRIME OF the CENTURY -- -- is etched in the memory of MODERATES, LIBERALS, CENTRISTS AND PRAGMATISTS -- at home and abroad....

it made the ugly, the naked and the wholly immoral, unamerican idea of naked Invasion and brutish occupation of a sovereign country -- palatable and acceptable to the questioning Americans -- it silenced the Democrats -- it hushed the questioning journalist into getting embedded with the Army of Occupation --

and it made the toally abhorrent and outdated idea of -- Colonial Occupation -- and its barbaric treatment of a poor third world peolple -- ``respectable` -- in the eyes of the mainstream America of Jefferson and Washington and Ben Franklin....

if Mr. Colin Powell -- instead of outright LYING -- about the non existant WMD in the memorable Security COuncil session -- HAD RESIGNED -- before taking that immoral burden upon his shoulder --

most likely he would have PREVENTED this IMMORAL WAR....

saved the LIVES of -- 600 American kids -- and prevented the deaths of 50,000 -- poor impoverished Iraqi men women and CHILDREN......

But he DID NOT.......

Mr. Powell has eaten CROWS after CROWS.......yet he has no guts to apologize to the American public like CLarke did......mr. Powell`s claims of greatness are high exaggarated.....if Mr. Powell was an angel -- today he is -- a fallen angel......

Mr. Powell has committed a greater CRIME than the NEOCON(vict)s because Mr. Powell of all the miscreants -- knowingly or unknowlingly.....MISLED the mainstream of the United States.... into a Financial, Political and MORAL disaster.........of Mount Mckinley proportion..

....and for that act of Omission or Commission -- Mr. Colin Powell will burn in hell.....till eternity......

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I thought the following op-ed column by Maureen Dowd is relevant and may be of interest to the readers.

Mohammad Gill

---

House of Broken Toys

April 18, 2004
By MAUREEN DOWD





WASHINGTON

When Colin Powell decided that Dick Cheney`s crazy ``fever,``
as he called the vice president`s obsession with linking
9/11 and Saddam, was leading the country into a war it did
not need to fight, he should have bared his heart to the
president and made his case using the Powell doctrine -
with overwhelming force.

Mr. Bush probably wouldn`t have listened. He was in Mr.
Cheney`s gloomy sway, and Rummy`s bellicose sway. And W.
felt competitive with his more popular top diplomat.

But Mr. Powell should have tried. And if the president
didn`t listen, the secretary should have quit - not let
himself be used by the vice president and his ``Gestapo
office`` of Pentagon neocons, as Mr. Powell referred to
them, to put a diplomatic fig leaf on a predetermined war
plan and to present bogus intelligence to the U.N.

He knew his word held enormous weight around the world. And
he knew he was the only one, out of all the officials in on
the clandestine rush to war, who had fought in a war. He
should have spoken up for all those soldiers who would
fight and die and be maimed for Dick Cheney`s nutty utopian
dream of bombing the world into freedom, and W.`s dream of
being so forceful with Saddam, the slime bag who survived
his father`s war, that he would forever banish his family`s
bête noire - the wimp factor.

It would have been much more honorable than playing
Achilles sulking in his Foggy Bottom tent, privately
pouting to Bob Woodward that he had warned the president
about the Pottery Barn effect - break Iraq and ``you know
you`re going to be owning this place`` - and tattling that
his colleagues were engaged in ``lunacy.``

``At times, with his closest friends, Powell was
semidespondent,`` his pal Mr. Woodward writes in ``Plan of
Attack.`` ``His president and his country were headed for a
war that he thought might just be avoided, though he
himself would not walk away.``

Mr. Woodward, who is clearly channeling Mr. Powell, as he
has done to present Mr. Powell`s side of the story in past
books, recreates his innermost thoughts: ``He saw in Cheney
a sad transformation. The cool operator from the first gulf
war just would not let go. Cheney now had an unhealthy
fixation. Nearly every conversation or reference came back
to Al Qaeda and trying to nail the connection with Iraq. He
would often have an obscure piece of intelligence. Powell
thought that Cheney took intelligence and converted
uncertainty and ambiguity into fact. It was about the worst
charge that Powell could make about the vice president. But
there it was.``

Everyone in Washington has been puzzling over how Mr.
Cheney, a reasonable, cautious, popular man in the first
Bush administration, turned into Pluto, king of the
underworld and proponent of worst-case scenarios and
pre-emption.

But Mr. Powell shared his dread, Cassandra-like, with Mr.
Woodward: ``The more Powell dug, the more he realized that
the human sources were few and far between on Iraq`s W.M.D.
It was not a pretty picture.``

George Tenet comes across in the book as another profile in
cravenness. On Dec. 21, 2002, the C.I.A. chief went to the
Oval Office with an aide to present ``The Case`` on W.M.D.
Even Mr. Bush, already deeply enmeshed in war plans, was
taken aback at the paucity of it. ``Nice try,`` Mr. Bush
said. ``I don`t think this is quite - it`s not something
that Joe Public would understand or would gain a lot of
confidence from.`` Turning to Mr. Tenet, he added: ``I`ve
been told all this intelligence about having W.M.D. and
this is the best we`ve got?``

When the president asked how confident he was, Mr. Tenet,
premier apple polisher, gave Mr. Bush the answer he wanted
to hear: ``Don`t worry, it`s a slam dunk!``

Just as the Democratic president ducked behind the parsed
line, ``I did not have sexual relations with that woman,`` so
the Republican president ducked behind the parsed line, ``I
have no war plans on my desk.``

The plans for invading ``The House of Broken Toys,`` as the
C.I.A. referred to Iraq, may not have been sitting on his
desk, but he secretly started planning with Rummy for war
with Iraq in November 2001, and with Tommy Franks starting
the next month. Once they were thick into the planning, the
president couldn`t turn back, of course. That would make
him like the loathed Bill Clinton - a lot of bold talk and
not much action - not like ``The Man,`` as Mr. Cheney called
his warrior president.

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We don’t have all the facts to discuss the whole issue. Howsoever, you discuss this issue it is always going to sound like a conspiracy theory. So here is my conspiracy theory. Read it. laugh over it or send the FBI at my home. Whatever you chose, I lose!

We already know and I hope there is no doubt in anybody’s mind now that the Bush admin from the first day in the office wanted to finish the unfinished business in Iraq. That was the cornerstone of neo-cons foreign policy agenda. There is no point in even discussing the neo-cons reasoning for that. If you are unsure, send me an email and I will send you several links to places where you can buy Dick Clarke’s book.

The Clinton Admin fully briefed the Bush admin about the dangers. There was sufficient chatter around the intelligence agencies. If you listen to fundos of Pakistan you also know that 4000 Jews already knew the whole thing for years. If you are a Jew then you already know that all the Arab hot dog vendors in the downtown NY and in New Jersey and may be some in Wash, DC knew the whole thing for more years. Only people who had no idea what is coming were in the WH, Langley and on the Constitution ave. Well! But they knew and they admit that some thing was expected but they did not know when, or how, and at what scale. Are you with me so far?

Just think then why the Bush admin was not thinking of taking the terrorists on? Well did they not need an excuse to go after Iraq? Project for New America (PNAC) site says only a new pearl harbor can get them public support. Kissinger said the same thing four years ago. So wanna get something done. You need a Pearl Harbor and you have some useful idiots to bait. You set the bait and wait for the fish. You drop your guards you pretend that terrorism is not a big issue and your useful idiots think that US does not know what they are doing and they take the bait. They come flying from their bar brawls in the name of jihad. The only thing people who set the bait up were not aware of was: how hard and how big a fish that would be. They came pretty hard with four big fishes.
And we are still talking about August 6th Memo.

Are you laughing or calling the FBI. I am damned!

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Good quote (an error does not make a mistake until you refuse to correct it). That is why democracies work and dictatorships dont - the former tend to be self-correcting, the latter do not.