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A Credible Threat
Rich Galen Friday October 7, 2005
From Tom Raum's AP piece on President Bush's speech yesterday:
President Bush said Thursday the United States and its allies had foiled at least 10 serious plots by the al-Qaida terror network in the last four years, including plans for Sept. 11-like attacks on both U.S. coasts.
On the NY Times web site last night by William Rashbaum:
Security in and around New York City's subways was sharply increased yesterday after city officials said they were notified by federal authorities in Washington of a terrorist threat that for the first time specifically named the city's transit system.
Also from the AP:
Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts said Bush "continues to invent a false link between the war in Iraq and the tragedy of Sept. 11."
From Jonathan S. Landay and Shannon Mccaffrey writing for the Knight Ridder news service:
A recent U.S. military raid on a terrorist group's hideout south of Baghdad, Iraq, netted intelligence that prompted New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to warn Thursday that the metropolis' sprawling subway system faced an explicit threat of terrorist attacks.
Let's review the bidding: George W. Bush says - again - the war in Iraq is connected to terrorism in the US. The guy who lost the election last November says that is hogwash - or whatever the Kerry equivalent of hogwash might be. Heinz pickles, maybe.
Far from Beacon Hill, in Baghdad (which is still in Iraq), a raid finds evidence of a plot against the New York City subway system which, according to MapQuest, appears to be located in the actual United States.
In the somewhat odd reality which exists on the inside of John Kerry's head, this qualifies as a "false link."
This is what President Bush, Secretary Rice and Secretary Rumsfeld have been trying to tell their detractors on Capitol Hill. It is all of a piece. Fight the bad guys in Iraq (and Afghanistan) and we have a shot at stopping attacks in America.
A terrorist attack might happen in any event. But if we were to adopt the Kerry-Pelosi-Dean kumbaya theory of the war and stop fighting the terrorists in the Middle East, an attack on US soil becomes an absolute certainty.
I guarantee you that by the time you read this, someone will have said on some cable network show or another that the threat against the subway system was faked by the Bush Administration to bolster its position on the need to continue to fight the war.
Elections, as we have been told, have consequences. The consequence of the election last Fall is that George W. Bush is in the Oval Office. He understands the nature of the threat against America and Americans and is pursuing the enemy vigorously.
Speaking of vigor, I attended a dinner last night celebrating the 50th anniversary of National Review magazine as the guest of Juanita Duggan and the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers.
About 1,000 Conservatives chatted about this 'n that. How well the Washington Nationals' first season was. How surprising that the Redskins are 3-0. How we could use some rain.
The usual.
Actually I listened in on conversations to hear what the popular press has led us to believe is an all out revolt brewing among Conservatives because of the nomination of Harriet Miers to be on the Supreme Court.
There were, to be fair, no "Harriet for the Court" banners strung up, but neither did I detect a sense of seething anger brewing among the black-tied attendees.
Rather it was a sense of intellectual snobbery and cultural superiority with which they looked upon a mere lawyer from Dallas.
Of course, in Your Nation's Capital, intellectual snobbery and cultural superiority are the normal mechanisms of social discourse. For Republicans and Democrats.
On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: Links to many of the articles excerpted above. Another nice Mullfoto and a Catchy Caption of the Day.
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Copyright © 2005 Richard A. Galen
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