I really don't mean to sound like some paranoid, conspiracy-theorist whackjob, but is Bush doing all this on purpose?
Today's New York Times details the contents of a report by U.S. intelligence agencies that pretty much lays it on the line: Everything the Bushinistas have done since 9/11 has only made recruitment easier for Muslim terorist groups. The invasion of Iraq is Number One on the Hit Parade, but individual results from that, such as Abu Ghraib and the massacre at Haditha, plus Bush's end run around the Geneva Conventions to prolong the horrors at Gitmo, are all strong contributing factors. The bottom line, according to the report, is that we're more open to attack than ever before.
Most sentient beings have already sensed this, of course, but this is the first time that government agencies have come right out and said it, though in the context of a top-secret, eyes-only memo, as opposed to having the cajones to tell the American people they are at risk due to government action. At least it's a first step.
What's scary is, it's starting to seem plausible that maybe the Republicans are doing this on purpose. Since the only game they seem to know is the politics of fear, doesn't it make sense that they would deliberately amp up the danger, giving us all the more reason to be scared, all the more reason to turn to them to save us? The fact that they wouldn't be able to save us--we all remember how they handled Katrina--is beside the point. All they have to do is seem marginally more competent than the Democrats, and at this point I would trust a deflated innertube to have more political sense than the average Democrat.
No. A theory like that, it just seems...unbelievable. Doesn't it? Why would Bush continue doing things that his own advisors are telling him make the world more dangerous, while at the same time saying he's making the world better? I can't think of too many possible answers to that question, and none of the ones that come to mind give me comfort.
