Replies to post #7457 on Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[seabass]

>>>Whether you choose to believe it or not, Bush is surrounded by some incredibly smart people.<<<

And some incredibly stupid people who have managed to lose a global PR war against Saddam Hussein. Books will be written about this administration's lack of diplomatic skills and its ability to trash iron-clad international alliances almost overnight.

[ergo sum]

Bush guys are doing a good job of what?

It is, Jacoby admits, a tall order. Despite the Bush administration's global war on terrorism, he noted that al Qaeda had its most active year ever in 2002, killing hundreds of tourists in Bali, bombing a French tanker off the coast of Yemen, attacking U.S. Marines in Kuwait, assassinating a U.S. diplomat in Jordan and staging other attacks in Mombassa and Tunisia.
During this period, Israeli-Palestinian violence continued with no end in sight, which Jacoby said increases the likelihood of terrorist attacks against Americans and their allies in the region, and carries the potential for wider conflict throughout the Middle East.
And if all this were not troubling enough, al Qaeda, despite losses since Sept. 11, 2001, maintains operations on six continents and is arguably more agile than its adversaries in the U.S. intelligence community.
"We recognize that we're called upon to 'know something about everything,' and it'’s a daunting task for those already at war on a global scale," Jacoby said. "I am increasingly concerned that our Defense Intelligence capability is being stretched too thin and that we are being forced to sacrifice longer term capabilities in order to respond to today's requirements."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58343-2003Feb24.html

[sylvester80]

<Bush is surrounded by some incredibly smart people>

You have got to be kidding me. That must be why then in less than 2 years he had to fire his whole economic team? Or that he had the easiest possible PR machine after 9/11 and his people totally blew it, while creating some of the largest anti-americanism the U.S. has ever seen. Especially during this economic global interdependency day and age...