What's that you say? One of the responsibilies of an American President...

[p_p_man]

is to protect his citizens from attack?

Well, get a loada this then...

Bush held up plan to hit Bin Laden

Julian Borger in Washington
Monday August 5, 2002
The Guardian

"The Bush administration sat on a Clinton-era plan to attack al-Qaida in Afghanistan for eight months because of political hostility to the outgoing president and competing priorities, it was reported yesterday.

The plan, under which special forces troops would have been sent after Osama bin Laden, was drawn up in the last days of the Clinton administration but a decision was left to the incoming Bush team.

However, a top-level discussion of the proposals took place only on September 4, a week before the al-Qaida attacks on New York and Washington. In the months in between, the plan was shuffled through the bureaucracy by an administration distrustful of anything to do with Bill Clinton and which appeared fixated on national missile defence and the war on drugs, rather than the struggle against terrorism."

ppman

 

[koalabear]

The main function of the President, is to gain as much money for his national political party as he can while in office. That's it.

 

[deliciously_naughty]

You mean his main job in office isn't to create as much fodder for comedians as possible? No way!

 

[Oliver Clozoff]

PP, you've spent virtually every spare minute of the last year you're not down at the pub bashing Bush for going after bin Laden so strongly.

Now you're upset that he didn't start soon enough?

Me smells something and it's not just your overflowing "Depends" undergarments.

 

[p_p_man]

PP, you've spent virtually every spare minute of the last year you're not down at the pub bashing Bush for going after bin Laden so strongly.

Now you're upset that he didn't start soon enough?

Me smells something and it's not just your overflowing "Depends" undergarments.

Well you won't win any prizes for perception and comprehension.

I have spent a lot of time (not every spare minute) of the last year bashing Bush for the methods he used to go after bin Laden. He could have gone after the man harder for all I care.

As long as it didn't mean even more Afghan civilians, hospitals, mosques, food depots, villages and the like being destroyed.

Now I'm pointing out, ever so gently, that George for all his fighting talk after the Twin Towers really is the brainless idiot everybody thinks he is.

ppman

 

[celiaKitten]

The main function of the President, is to gain as much money for his national political party as he can while in office. That's it.

how dare you suggest such a thing?!?

<note: sarcasm>

 

[Oliver Clozoff]

Bullshit, PP.

Before 9/11, had Bush launched a major operation to go after bin Laden, you'd have been the first to cry about his heavy-handedness and imperialistic behavior regardless of whether civilian casualties were inflicted or not.

You're a blowhard.

 

[Purrde Flower]

For about 38 hours after 9-11 I qwould have supported any decision to glass the place.

 

[lavender]

 

[SimGuy]

You mean his main job in office isn't to create as much fodder for comedians as possible? No way!

That was the Previous unlamented President.

 

[p_p_man]

Bullshit, PP.

Before 9/11, had Bush launched a major operation to go after bin Laden before 9/11, you'd have been the first to cry about his heavy-handedness and imperialistic behavior regardless of whether civilian casualties were inflicted or not.

You're a blowhard.

Again comprehension of what I write about is odviously not your forte.

I would certainly have questioned the legitimacy of such an invasion and if civilians and non military targets were destroyed I would certainly have launched an attack on Bush.

But as I had never heard of bin Laden until the twin towers I wouldn't have cared less about him.

ppman

 

[Oliver Clozoff]

Which is all the more reason you'd have been pissed off at an American offensive into Afghanistan. It would've looked like a trumped up reason to invade Central Asia to gain hegemony over the burgeoning oilfields there, right?

See, I do comprehend your lame rhetoric.

Never mind, you're not worth it.

And yes, lavs. The geriatric patients have a tendency to get to you.

 

[koalabear]

is to protect his citizens from attack?


ppman

No actually it was to open up West Virginia to attack by the coal companies that helped him get all the Electorial votes in the state. He attacked the Clean Water Act with more vigor then he did Bin Laden.

 

[michaelmt1]

Sorry p_p_man but bush could not act on a stretegic plan like this with out just cause and a clear and present danger. Even when he did act he had to do so with the agreement of many nations. I do not believe for one second that that he would have acted with or with out the consent of the other nations.

I have no doubt that the US has stretegic plans covering the invasion of many places Iraq, Lybia some eastern block nations and possible france (well we can only hope). The fact that the plans exist can not in its self be justicication for the implementations of same. The fact that a wanted man in the US is in another nation can not be considered justification for an invasion.

Bush has to act inaccordance with the constitution and I feel that he has acted with in the limitations allowed both with in the US and around the world.

Cheers


Mike

 

[p_p_man]

Sorry p_p_man but bush could not act on a stretegic plan like this with out just cause and a clear and present danger.

Mike

The plans were actually drawn up after the attack on the USS Cole...

"The plan to take the counter-terrorist battle to al-Qaida was drafted after the attack on the warship the USS Cole in Yemen in October 2000. Mr Clinton's terrorism expert, Richard Clarke, presented it to senior officials in December, but it was decided that the decision should be taken by the new administration.

According to today's Time magazine, Mr Clinton's national security adviser, Sandy Berger and Mr Clarke outlined the threat in briefings they provided for Condoleezza Rice, George Bush's national security adviser, in January 2001, a few weeks before she and her team took up their posts.

At the key briefing, Mr Clarke presented proposals to "roll back" al-Qaida which closely resemble the measures taken after September 11. Its financial network would be broken up and its assets frozen. Vulnerable countries like Uzbekistan, Yemen and the Philippines would be given aid to help them stamp out terrorist cells."

ppman

 

[SINthysist]

Maybe if Clinton would have been more gracious in allowing him to get his offices set up in advance. They had a lot of catching up to do and a lot of waiting...

...like for the keyboard "W's" to show up!

 

[SINthysist]

Clinton had a plan for everything.
Bush has a plan for everything, some of which keeps leaking out.
It's what Presidential Staffers do. Then when the administration reaches a consensus on policy, they have a plan to match thier goals. I would be VERY dissappointed if there were no such plan after the previous attacks.

Where many fault Clinton is in the POLICY selection. Not the plan. His staff does that.

OK.

 

[bluespoke]

Maybe if Clinton would have been more gracious in allowing him to get his offices set up in advance. They had a lot of catching up to do and a lot of waiting...

...like for the keyboard "W's" to show up!

Obviously Clinton didn't fancy being called.....

'A *anker *ith a *andering *illie'.

 

[SINthysist]

LOL

IT WAS THE STAFFERS!

The ones who made the plan!

SO NOW BUSH IS GETTING BASHED FOR IGNORING IT!

 

[RhumbRunner13]

Maybe the Clinton "plan" was a lot like his Presidency....it sucked!

Rhumb

 

[SINthysist]

I thought mine would be the worst one of the day!

Thanks Rhumb!

 

[iwmggw]

one of the responsibilities.............

......of being the village idiot, is to keep starting totally inane threads such as this one. Keep up the good work peepee. If there is village idiot royalty...............you are the king.

 

[REDWAVE]

Osama bush Laden

Face it-- a massive, coordinated assault like the Sept. 11 attacks could NEVER have happened unless the U.S. government LET IT HAPPEN. Bush needed 911 to restore his already sagging usurped Presidency. Now he's getting ready to attack Iraq this fall to save Republicans in Congress from disaster in the upcoming elections.

I don't agree with pp about everything, as the Maastricht thread shows, but he is a veritable prince among men.

 

[SINthysist]

The REAL village idiot stepping up to say, contrary to REDWAVE's view of government, it is not that efficient. The more responsibilities it assumes, the higher the clusterfuck quotient. Then when promted to act, the FUBAR tangential sequence gets factored in resulting in unintended consequences and loss of mission clarity and intended purpose.

 

[teddybear4play]

Re: Osama bush Laden

Face it-- a massive, coordinated assault like the Sept. 11 attacks could NEVER have happened unless the U.S. government LET IT HAPPEN. Bush needed 911 to restore his already sagging usurped Presidency. Now he's getting ready to attack Iraq this fall to save Republicans in Congress from disaster in the upcoming elections.

Face it — you have no idea what you're talking about. Our ability to see this coming, through counterintelligence and immigrant visa tracking, was in total disarray. There were so many people asleep at the wheel it's a wonder they didn't do more damage.

As for the "massive coordinated assault," you're giving them too much credit. All they had to do was coordinate flights, pick the right day, and sneak their boxcutters on the airplane, after learning just enough about aviation to guide a passenger jet. Start to finish, it probably took a few months and a couple hundred thousand dollars.

I can understand you don't like Bush, but in order to accuse him of allowing the deaths of nearly three thousand people for political gain, you need a hell of a lot more than circumstantial evidence. Shit, I don't like FDR all that much, but I don't even believe he allowed Pearl Harbor to happen to get us into World War II.

TB4p