You Don't Need A Weatherman

The Bush administration says now that our main enemy in Iraq is Al Qeada and that the surge is working. Maybe this is true. The violence has not decreased. The IEDs continue to blow in the streets of Bagdad. The rocket attacks on the Green Zone are unabated. American soldiers continue to die. As the Iraqi Pariment goes on summer recess, they have no support among the people, no control of their own military. It isn't that they need more training to be effective. They need more loyalty. Bush's press people say the surge is working. Maybe it is.

The Bush administration says that Al Queda is more powerful now than at any time since 9/11. Al Queda has it's stronghold in the tribal areas in the mountainous border regions of Afganistan and Pakistan. Bush administration spokesmen call these areas semi-autonomous. I don't see what's so damned semi about it. There is no military or civil presence there. There wasn't when the British lost an army there 200 years ago. There wasn't when Alexander decided not to fight them 2000 years ago. There isn't any now and there's not likely to be for the next 1000 years. Al Queda doesn't control these areas, the tribesman that live there do but they welcome Al Queda, for now. Why shouldn't they? Al Queda brings money and guns and strong men to fight beside them. Together they can slaughter the Afgan warlords that would take the poppy fields for their own and make the Pakky dog soldiers pee down their legs in fear.

Three years ago, The Bush administration told us that Al Queda was isolated and insulated from the rest of the world in these mountainous wastes, no threat to anyone, impotent. Today the Bush administration tells us that Al Queda has rebuilt it's leadership, recruited and trained new hosts of fighters, re-established effective communications, and refilled their coffers. How could this have happened?

George Bush has always told us that it's better to fight them over there, than over here. The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security tells us this week, to expect major acts of terrorism, in this country, this summer. Since we're not fighting them over there, in the semi-autonomous border regions, I guess now we'll have to fight them over here.

Maybe we can get these damn California gun laws relaxed a little now. Anybody know where I can get an AK and a couple hundred thousand rounds? How about some RPGs? I'd like some of them too.

You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.