While You Were at War, Mr. Bush...
While You Were at War, Mr. Bush...
#1While You Were at War, Mr. Bush...
Posted: 1/2/07 at 2:41pm
In a New Year's Eve op-ed in the Washington Post, Richard Clarke delineates 7 key world crises that the Bush administration has ignored because of its pointless war in Iraq.
snippet:
===
While You Were at War . . .
By Richard A. Clarke
Sunday, December 31, 2006; Page B01
In every administration, there are usually only about a dozen barons who can really initiate and manage meaningful changes in national security policy. For most of 2006, some of these critical slots in the Bush administration have been vacant, such as the deputy secretary of state (empty since Robert B. Zoellick left for investment bank Goldman Sachs) and the deputy director of national intelligence (with Gen. Michael V. Hayden now CIA director). And with the nation involved in a messy war spiraling toward a bad conclusion, the key deputies and Cabinet members and advisers are all focusing on one issue, at the expense of all others: Iraq.
National Security Council veteran Rand Beers has called this the "7-year-old's soccer syndrome" -- just like little kids playing soccer, everyone forgets their particular positions and responsibilities and runs like a herd after the ball....
Without the distraction of the Iraq war, the administration would have spent this past year -- indeed, every year since Sept. 11, 2001 -- focused on al-Qaeda. But beyond al-Qaeda and the broader struggle for peaceful coexistence with (and within) Islam, seven key "fires in the in-box" national security issues remain unattended, deteriorating and threatening, all while Washington's grown-up 7-year-olds play herd ball with Iraq....
[7 issues at link:]
While You Were at War . . .
Videos