Hornets Nest
In 2004, career counterterrorism expert Richard Clarke wrote that we invaded and occupied an oil rich Arab country that posed no threat, and delivered to al Qaeda the greatest recruitment propaganda imaginable. He has accused the Bush administration of ignoring the al Qaeda threat in the months leading up to the 9/11 attacks.
Clarke served four presidents and established a record for continuous service in national security policy positions. His career began as an analyst on nuclear weapons under Reagan and on 9/11, he was the nations crisis manager in the White House situation room.
Recently, Clarke said that the Bush's plan to send in more troops “just delays the inevitable. At some point, whether it's next year or two years from now, or five years from now, all U.S. major combat units will leave Iraq. And when they do there's going to be chaos. We've created that situation for ourselves, and there's nothing that we can do between now and next year or five years from now, that will change that outcome. The only thing that happens by staying on another two years is to increase our total casualties far more than the 3,028 Americans killed and the 2,000 Americans that have become double amputees.”
Clarke believes we can do away with combat units, by using intelligence units, and having an over-the-horizon presence of Special Forces, which can go in when necessary to stop al Qaeda from creating a sanctuary. We have an obligation to continue our rebuilding and our assistance effort, but having 160,000 combat troops there is only providing targets.
Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell points out that we haven’t been attacked again in five years. Although, Clarke admits that the Bush bureaucracy deserves credit for not allowing another attack, he insists that it has nothing to do with the fact that we're in Iraq. If anything, the occupation of Iraq makes it more likely another attack will occur because we're making more enemies and not concentrating on reducing our vulnerabilities here at home. He says that the thing to do is to get out of Iraq and go after bin Laden and al Qaeda, while reducing our vulnerabilities here at home and not continuing to stir up a hornets nest by being in Iraq.
Clarke served four presidents and established a record for continuous service in national security policy positions. His career began as an analyst on nuclear weapons under Reagan and on 9/11, he was the nations crisis manager in the White House situation room.
Recently, Clarke said that the Bush's plan to send in more troops “just delays the inevitable. At some point, whether it's next year or two years from now, or five years from now, all U.S. major combat units will leave Iraq. And when they do there's going to be chaos. We've created that situation for ourselves, and there's nothing that we can do between now and next year or five years from now, that will change that outcome. The only thing that happens by staying on another two years is to increase our total casualties far more than the 3,028 Americans killed and the 2,000 Americans that have become double amputees.”
Clarke believes we can do away with combat units, by using intelligence units, and having an over-the-horizon presence of Special Forces, which can go in when necessary to stop al Qaeda from creating a sanctuary. We have an obligation to continue our rebuilding and our assistance effort, but having 160,000 combat troops there is only providing targets.
Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell points out that we haven’t been attacked again in five years. Although, Clarke admits that the Bush bureaucracy deserves credit for not allowing another attack, he insists that it has nothing to do with the fact that we're in Iraq. If anything, the occupation of Iraq makes it more likely another attack will occur because we're making more enemies and not concentrating on reducing our vulnerabilities here at home. He says that the thing to do is to get out of Iraq and go after bin Laden and al Qaeda, while reducing our vulnerabilities here at home and not continuing to stir up a hornets nest by being in Iraq.
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