Posted on 09/27/2004 3:10:54 PM PDT by johannes89a
Paul R. Pillar, the CIA's national intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia, sat down Tuesday night in a large West Coast city with a select group of private citizens. He was not talking off the cuff. Relying on a multi-paged, single-spaced memorandum, Pillar said he and his colleagues concluded early in the Bush administration that military intervention in Iraq would intensify anti-American hostility throughout Islam. This was not from a CIA retiree but an active senior official.
(Excerpt) Read more at suntimes.com ...
Sounds like Pillar needs to go,Enough of these lies to select citizens..
What was this private group he was meeting with?
Probably the most damaging factor that currently encourages radicalism is the Palestinian problem. Saddam was unfortunately becoming a major player and Pali facilitator and had to be squashed.
911 also changed the equation and made Saddam a institutional obstacle with the U.N. and he was indeed a "gathering threat" that had to be dealt with soon.
The timing was either wait a year or do it now, and mid terms were happening the following year which made now the politically expedient thing to do.
We did the right thing, because by now we would have most certainly had our fill of Saddam and Kerry would likely be using it as an election issue. He would be saying "attack now!" "I can fix this! Down with Saddam"!
The big picture has changed and we are now in the process of stabilizing the Middle East and forever changing the face of Islam.
This is going to take a while folks, so those of you with a instant gratification complex please leave the room.
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