Tenet Does 60 Minutes [Necessary Read]

National Review Online ^ | April 30, 2007 | Andrew C. McCarthy

[montag813]

Question: Why did it take 9/11 for that?

Because Berger, Tenet and Rice were all incompetent boobs.

[Gritty]

The fabric of lies about this war the Liberals have constructed from whole cloth these past four years are now accepted as truth.

It's amazing how perceptive Goebbels was.

[SuziQ]

I’m still annoyed with the fact that we won in Iraq — when Bush announced Mission Accomplished. And then we stayed!!!???

Just one problem; President Bush NEVER said that our mission in Iraq was accomplished. In fact, he said JUST THE OPPOSITE in his speech to the sailors on the USS Lincoln. That banner, proclaiming "Mission Accomplished" was created by the commanders of the USS Lincoln for the sailors on the ship, to congratulate them on the tour they had recently completed. The President flew out to the ship to congratulate them as well, but used that time to remind everyone that the war was FAR from over, and that it would take a very long time to defeat terrorism.

Just proves the old adage, if the media repeats a lie long enough, and loud enough, folks will start to believe it.

[Sleeping Beauty]

If we left immediately after removing Saddam (he wasn't captured immediately) do you think Iraq would have remained a non-threat?

syriacus -- yes I do. Here's what would have happened. We would declare Iraq a no-fly zone and watch from the borders. There would have been years of in-fighting between the sunnis and shiites. The herd would be thinned. Something stable would emerge.

If it posed a direct threat to us, we would strike those targets from the air. And so on and so on. It was a clean victory. One we should be proud of.

[Sleeping Beauty]

""Mission Accomplished was for the sailors who had just accomplished their mission at sea. The phrase had NOTHING to do with the mission being accomplished in Iraq.""

Guys, you're talking to ME here. That spin is less than 4 months old.

However, I won't mention our victory again (or the fact that we did acheive it and Bush was absolutely correct).

BTW, what mission DID those sailors accomplish? It must have been a pretty big one for the president of the United States to fly out to their ship with the world press in tow.

[cwb]

“If we had left Saddam in place, the sanctions would have disintegrated in short order — Security Council members France, Russia and China were bought and paid for in Oil-for-Food bribes. Once the sanctions had collapsed, Saddam would have been right back in business — his WMD programs ready to be up and running again”

---

This is something that the Left never considers—and is one of the better reasons why Saddam needed to be deposed. In fact, if there is anyone who thinks Saddam would be sitting quitely in Iraq today...as Iran continues to buld nuclear weapons, they’re nuts.

We’d be lookig at a Mid-East arms race between two nutballs, as other ME nations began looking at their own nuclear options (which might still happen just because of Iran). With Pakistan and India already possessing nukes—and Iran on the way, there is no way Saddam was going to abide by any UN sanction...especially as he watches Iran snub their nose at the world.

[Wildbill22]

Well has it been totally discounted that there WERE any WMDs? What about the Mossad reporting convoys crossing the Iraqi/Syrian boarder? And possible Russian collusion in removing all evidence of such programs prior to the US invasion of Iraq? If there is any evidence of that we must be broadcasting it to counter Tenet’s claim that the CIA was just wrong on their existence.

[hosepipe]

If George Tenet was any good for the job Bill Clinton would NOT HAVE appointed him the day after Vince Foster was murdered.. George Bush’s first move after inauguration SHOULD HAVE BEEN replace George Tenet..

BUT Bush DID NOT replace the Attoneys in the justice either.. You know the attoneys that Clinton replaced in the Justice Department ALL OF THEM.. not just 8 of them..

Bush pretty much used the Executive branch setup that Bill Clinton setup.. George Bush is a very very very trusting idiot.. You know like his father..

[LexBaird]

syriacus -- yes I do. Here's what would have happened. We would declare Iraq a no-fly zone and watch from the borders. There would have been years of in-fighting between the sunnis and shiites. The herd would be thinned. Something stable would emerge.

History argues the opposite. Take, for example, Afghanistan. There, with massive covert support from the US, the Soviet dictatorship was removed. Then, the US abandoned the region to sort itself out. This left a power vacuum that was filled by the Taliban and created the safe haven for Al Queda.

Politics, like Nature, abhors a vacuum, and out of chaos, it is rare that anything but a thug state emerges to make things stable. Given the history of Mesopotamia since the time of Abraham, what makes you think Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia would be content to let things settle out in the strategic breadbasket of the Middle East?

[Tolik]

 

Andrew C. McCarthy Nails Tenet!
 

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[tillacum]

I think this was the first carrier to return from Iraq. They did accomplish a mission, 1. Their planes flew into Iraq and Aphfanistan and bombed them. 2. Some of their missiles were used to help soften up the enemy. Yes, they had a mission and did it well. It was the first ship to return from that area and the President thanked them for a job well done.

[Sleeping Beauty]

Given the history of Mesopotamia since the time of Abraham, what makes you think Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia would be content to let things settle out in the strategic breadbasket of the Middle East?

In the case of Iraq:

1. Relatively flat terrain with easy surveillance.

2. A no fly zone with sea-launched missiles to shoot offenders down.

3. A continuation of the struggle between Sunnis (Syria) and Shias (Iran) making everything else a footnote.

4. A land locked country with nowhere to go.

5. Who cares if they fight and kill each other?

6. No reason for Al Qaeda to be there because there are no infidels to kill.

7. Chaos that ensures no sophisticated organization to threaten us.

Of course, we're there now and it is all too late for this. But I read military history and I don't know a General alive today who would have put soldiers into Iraq to catch bullets -- unless that General was under direct orders to do so by the Commander in Chief.

I will say it again. We DID win the war in Iraq years and years ago.

The terrorists were elsewhere at the time.

And then we decided to stick around.

Now, we urgently need 200,000 additional troops, at the very least, to police every single square inch of Iraq -- and protect each other. Our enemies are invisible until they attack us. Ever see that movie Predator? That's what its like for an American soldier to fight a guerrilla war. It sucks.

[SandRat]

Tenet trying to re-write history.

[LexBaird]

In the case of Iraq:

1. Relatively flat terrain with easy surveillance.

Do you have any clue how BIG the area is you are proposing surveillance on? With what assets do you think that job could be done? And what exactly would surveillance do about a few Iranian divisions pouring across the border?

2. A no fly zone with sea-launched missiles to shoot offenders down.

And where, with the continuing resistance to basing troops in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Turkey are you going to base this "No Fly" force, and what makes you think it would be any more successful than the failed effort against Saddam? Unless you are willing to commit the US to a seaborne invasion of Iran, they can interdict the Persian Gulf at will. If they should invade, by land, an Iraq in collapse, how would the US stop it?

3. A continuation of the struggle between Sunnis (Syria) and Shias (Iran) making everything else a footnote.

Currently, the Syrians and Iranians are co-operating to destabilize Iraq. Given that it is one of the few fertile area in the ME, why wouldn't they co-operate to partition it up? Not to mention that Turkey would love to rid itself of the Kurds.

4. A land locked country with nowhere to go.

Nowhere but Turkey, Jordan, Israel, the Saudi and Kuwaiti oil fields. Yet, you advocate using sea-based force to monitor and interdict from. It is also the historical controlling area of the region, with the most desireable terrain.

5. Who cares if they fight and kill each other?

Anybody who wants to eliminate terrorist hiding places, breeding grounds for fanatics, threats to world energy supply, and the chance that the Islamacist regimes of the area may expand and secure their flanks.

6. No reason for Al Qaeda to be there because there are no infidels to kill.

They were there before. And in Afghanistan before. And in Somalia before and returned after we left. And in Sudan, which has been hands off. And in the Philippines, which we treat as a friendly nation. Why would they leave, if the US was so stupid as to create the sort of "strongman" environmental chaos that they thrive in, and then abandon the field to them?

7. Chaos that ensures no sophisticated organization to threaten us.

It didn't insure it in post-Soviet Afghanistan, nor does a group need to be "sophisticated" to launch terror attacks.

[Grizzled Bear]

Was Tenet the one who was swapping classified material between his Official Lap Top computer and his Internet connected home computer?

It was him or the CIA boss just before him.

[Sleeping Beauty]

Well, heck, Lex —

I could have picked apart my argument even better than you did.

[NonLinear]

I could have picked apart my argument even better than you did.

Why use a bazooka to kill a gnat? It didn't take much.

[CyberAnt]

Well .. that may have been true about him when you knew him .. but anybody .. and I mean ANYBODY who comes in contact with the Clintons becomes tainted.

I’m still convinced Hillary’s people were leaning on him about writing this book. She cannot afford for her scum of a husband to be seen as the philandering, do-nothing president he was.

And .. his comments about Libby were just abismal!

[Rummyfan]

Tenet is a lying, weak, miserable career bureaucrat trying to cash in by feeding the liberal MSM what it wants: more bashing of the Administration. I doubt the man has ever been acquainted with the truth in his entire miserable life.

As for the CIA... well they did accurately predict the Pakistani development of nuclear weapons and the fall of the Soviet Union didn't they? Ooops.....

[Constantine XIII]