A variety of wise guys in the press are making fun of the recent announcement by U.S. “intelligence” announcing the demise of al-Qaida’s “third-ranking operative,” making this the tenth No. 3 to bite the dust, by some accounts.
The government is always reporting taking out al-Qaida’s No. 3 guy because if it reported taking out No. 2 or even No. 1 (which God forbid!) that might imply that the War on Terror might be, you know, OVER, and no one wants that. I think it’s absolutely true, and no conspiracy theory, that the Bush Administration did not try very hard to get its hands on Osama, because it was Saddam, not Osama, that they wanted. The Right learned the hard way that it’s a political disaster to actually win a war.
Obama is not a right-winger, of course, but he’s ceded control of foreign policy to them. As far as he’s concerned, the right policy is the policy that covers his ass most effectively. Bush pursued an arbitrary war-making authority for the sake of megalomanical dreams of American omnipotence. Obama pursues it so that he may safely play with upper-middle-class toys like high-speed rail, electric cars, and “smart” growth. Can you tell the difference?
