Dear Supporter of President Bush and Vice President Cheney:
The administrations' policies fail even on
their own terms.
What do I mean?
Well, the White House says that "we need to fight them over
there so we don't have to fight them here". However, American
intelligence agencies have concluded that the
Iraq war increases the
threat of terrorism (and see this
and this).
And Bush and Cheney say that torture is part of the new reality,
and that 24's
Jack Bauer is the new American role model. However, a
former FBI interrogator said torture
doesn't work, and it actually breeds
terrorism. Indeed, it is well-known
by professional interrogators that torture
doesn't work. Moreover, torture by Americans endangers
all American troops (if they are captured, it will be pay-back
time).
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And the guys in charge think that America can control the
world (for good) by fighting wars on multiple fronts using
the "Rumsfeld
Doctrine". Specifically, Rummie replaced the "Powell Doctrine"
(going into war with overwhelming force) with a new empire-friendly
doctrine of sending in few troops in many theaters with few
supplies but a lot of high-tech toys and air campaigns. Guess
what? It doesn't
work.
Just look at Iraq. We bombed the snot out of them during the
initial shock and awe phase, but they did something really
sneaky: they hid until
the bombing campaign was over. Then they came out and started
shooting at our boys. Oh, and those bombs turned the entire
population into part of the "resistance", because -- surprise,
surprise -- killing and maiming a bunch of kids and innocent
civilians seems to do that for some reason.
And our soldiers are getting killed
due to Rummie's theory that you can lightly provision
the troops.
I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney's
policies fail on their own terms.