Time and AP only prove Sheryl Gay Stolberg correct

[elfs]

(AP) - U.S. intelligence analysts have concluded al-Qaida has rebuilt its operating capability to a level not seen since just before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, The Associated Press has learned.

Well, that seems to be a lovely indicator of just how well the war on terror is going. Then the article goes on to say,

The findings could bolster the president's hand at a moment when support on Capitol Hill for the war is eroding and the administration is struggling to defend its decision for a military buildup in Iraq.

Wait, what?

This president and his administration botched our assault on the perpetrators of 9/11 in Afghanistan, then distracted most of our military resources to a war of choice against a country that, as far anyone knew, had no relationship to Al-Qaeda. It has placed us eight months away from having a broken army according to Pentagon officials. It has trainwrecked our military readiness, trashed our international reputation, destroyed one country and seriously fucked up another, mortgaged this great disaster on the backs of my children, and yours (and if you don't have kids, then on the backs of the kids who will be powering the economy during your slow slide into lonesome senility), and has turned its war policy into the greatest recruitment campaign our enemies could ever hope for, enabling our enemies to rise more capable and effective than ever before...

... and the AP says this "bolsters the president's hand."

WHAT.  THE.  FUCK‽‽‽‽‽‽‽‽‽

Jesus, Horus, Thor, and Amaterasu, the man has gotten absolutely everything wrong, has inflicted untold damage upon this country, failed in his self-selected primary mission, and when documentation of his failure lands on his desk the press tells us, "Well, this just shows how right the man is?"

Frack, I wouldn't get fed more raw bullshit if all I read every day was The Corner and Daily Kos.

[Belated hat tip to hilzoy at Obsidian Wings.]

Comments

[solarbird]

One thing Glenn Greenwald does well is document how fundamentally broken the American political / news press (including television - the MSM, basically) has become, both in becoming a class structure and becoming monumentally incompetent. I myself have had extensive run-ins with the incompetence of the media, and used that to my (and GBLTdom's in general) advantage against the various fundamentalist attempts to get anti-gay law on the books via initiative efforts here. The difference here is that they can be educated if you do all the work for them; the DC-centred press cannot be, because it refuses to be, educated by anyone outside their class circle. As a result, you see stuff like this. It's bog standard behaviour.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

I've gotten used to seeing the DC press cozy up to the DC system. I've read Greenwald too, so I'm rarely surprised by this kind of crap. But in the same article? I mean, separated by mere paragraphs, Lee and Shrader manage to contradict themselves! And the editor let it pass!

I guess it was just such a WTF moment, I lost it...

[riverheart.livejournal.com]

and if you don't have kids, then on the backs of the kids who will be powering the economy during your slow slide into lonesome senility

I tried the past few years, honestly I did. But kidney disease and menopause have interfered with that particular plan. Darn it anyway.

Luckily, senility doesn't run in my family. We tend to be productive and independent into our 80s or beyond.

[sirfox.livejournal.com]

regarding "bolstering his hand"... Maybe they're thinking of it more in terms of a scam or con-artist... You get the punters so heavily involved that they don't DARE back out, because they've already invested too much to walk away from. Scare them badly enough that they are afraid to abandon the venture, and the only way out seems to be forward through more of the same. Oh, that'll be some more money, too. Cough up.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_candide_/]

... and the AP says this "bolsters the president's hand."

Strangely enough, El Presidente doesn't feel the same way. I saw a news blurb stating that the White House has dismissed, out-of-hand, that al-Qaeda is back to where it was, pre-9/11.

[dossy.livejournal.com]

Did you really go out of your way to use interrobangs? Wow.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Of course! I love interrobangs!

[gromm.livejournal.com]

Heh. It's the old PHB strategy: "The ship is sinking! Bail faster, dammit!"

I seem to recall that Stalin used the same sort of tactic, whether consciously or not. Enemies! Enemies! Everywhere! Must keep fighting! Must root out spies and counterrevolutionaries! Must tap more phones! Must check more papers! Must build more checkpoints! Their numbers are growing faster now than ever before!