Node Of Evil - Fair And Balanced Reporting

Friday, March 26, 2004

 
Let the battle of documents begin. I've been following this whole Clarke/9-11 Commission affair all week, and it seems to me that it's time to open up the coffers of Presidential documents and let everyone see the evidence. This administration has been particularly unwilling to de-classify stuff, even changing the rules for how past administration's papers are declassified. Now, however, they're in hot enough water that the only way to resolve this whole mess is to let us see the evidence. They've produced selective documents to make their case (as have those who charge that a.) they weren't serious about terrorism, and b.) they used the war on terror as a pretext to target Iraq from day one), but the sum total of documents released so far is paltry in comparison to what's out there. We suspect this won't happen; we'll be forced to assemble the documentary record together piece by piece, collecting and re-analyzing stuff as more documents are published. It's such a political hot potato right now that they'll release some things here and there, but in the long run they'll probably keep the document stream to a trickle until the furor dies down around June (my guess as to when the firestorm will blow over). As for my opinions about the whole debacle, I'm pretty much on the same wavelength I've been on since the start; "terrorism" should be fought as a crime, not via some ill-defined "war". Los Angeles declare war on street gangs, and to an extent it worked for awhile. However, after the revelations of the shenanigans in the "elite" Rampart division, the whole thing came crashing down. I'm all for millitary action against Al-Qaeda, but the other efforts of the Bush administration are rather laughable (i.e., vetoing every censure resolution against Israel because the resolutions don't contain strong enough language condemning Palestinian terrorism, the war against Iraq, the PATRIOT act, etc...). Until the Bush administration changes its fundamental ideas about fighting terrorism, it will be as ineffective as were the colonial powers of Europe in hanging on to their colonies. More on this score in the coming weeks.

Andrew 12:29 PM : |

---