Clarke's Public Service (another WH ee supports Clarks memory)

[papau]

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/033004B.shtml

http://www.startribune.com/stories/562/4690189.html

Clarke's Public Service
By Tom Maertens
Star Tribune

Sunday 28 March 2004

MANKATO, MINN. — Richard Clarke, who served as the national coordinator for counterterrorism in the White House, argues in his new book, “Against All Enemies,” that the Bush administration ignored the threat from Al-Qaida and instead chose to fight “the wrong war” by attacking Iraq.

The troops who could have been used in Afghanistan to capture Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaida were instead held back for the planned invasion of Iraq. In contrast to the 150,000 men sent to Iraq, only about 11,500 troops were sent to Afghanistan, a force smaller than the New York City police. The result is that Bin Laden and his followers escaped across the border into Pakistan.

Meanwhile, American troops are being killed in Iraq, our army is stretched to the breaking point, our international credibility is at an all-time low, Muslims are further radicalized to join a jihad against us, and our relations with key allies have been damaged.

The Bush administration has counterattacked furiously, impugning Clarke’s facts, his timing and his motives. Marc Racicot, chairman of the Bush-Cheney campaign, said on national television that Clarke’s charges were “almost malevolent.” The qualifier “almost” is apparently meant to distinguish Clarke from someone genuinely malevolent — Saddam Hussein, perhaps.

Clarke was a colleague of mine for 15 months in the White House, under both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Subsequently, I moved to the U.S. State Department as deputy coordinator for counterterrorism, and worked with him and his staff before and after 9/11.

My experience confirms what Clarke relates in his book. The Bush administration did ignore the threat of terrorism. It was focused on tax cuts, building a ballistic missile system, withdrawing from the ABM Treaty and rejecting the Kyoto Protocol.<snip>

As Clarke has observed, the real war is against Al-Qaida. Instead, the Bush administration has involved us in a breath takingly cynical, unprovoked war against Iraq, under false pretenses, which it now uses to justify the reelection of a president who has violated the public trust.

-------

Tom Maertens, now retired, also served as a Naval officer during the Vietnam era and a Peace Corps volunteer in Africa.
-------

[ewagner]

1. Another insider..;.more truth

Can't wait to see this guy on Cable TV..........

It's no longer a solo by Clarke, it's becoming a CHIOR!