2914 The NIE leaker

The Democrats and their fellow travelers have lessened the chances of a timely withdrawal from Iraq, in my opinion. We saw it happen in Vietnam, with the young John Kerry-types in the forefront of the protests, giving hope and comfort and energy to the enemy, and it's happening again. Although as long as Bush is President, we probably won't run out on the people we've put at risk by liberating them from a tyrant.

But I'm really wondering about the latest government leaker. He seems to be in cahoots with the guy lowering gasoline prices. The NYT obviously took the terrorism quote out of context, but it can't be refuted without divulging critical information by releasing the whole thing, so we have accusations of "cherry-picking" from both sides. What the President has chosen to release is much more damning to the Democrats than what the leaker released to the NYT. We know the leak is related to the coming election, because the report is so old. So that doesn't look real great for the Dems either. It seems to be the old timey story of the media in bed with the Democrats, except. . . This global terrorism increased threat when you really look at it, is Muslims killing Muslims--all over the world. Many more than U.S. forces have killed. And before George Bush, they were going after us, here and abroad, and succeeding, too. Whether Clinton was busy with other adventures or he just had bad advice, he didn't push back.

Given human nature, and the history of past wars, is there some reason why their violence would NOT escalate when someone started to push back. Afterall, they aren't Democrats who run when someone says "boo."

Andrew C. McCarthy says, well duh, Osama said it in 1998!
Daniel McKivergan quotes Richard Clarke, one of Clinton's favorite sources in defending himself on Fox News.
Bull Moose notes that the Iraq war did not create Jihadism.