Just over a year ago (November ‘05) the administration released, with much fanfare, this:
With their usual subtlety, the National Strategy for Victory in Iraq mentions the word “victory” about 34 times. Of course, as many of us pointed out at the time, that’s pretty much all the document says. For the first time in U.S. history the key to victory in combat boiled down to typing the word “victory” and hitting cut-and-paste.
And yet, a year and one losing election later the president is jetting all over Washington looking for a strategy for victory in yet another spin move. When George Bush was first selected for office, my opinion of him was pretty low. Now it’s sub-strata and the body count is way higher.
Zoinks! Nice catch.
Incidently, the AP just did an article detailing what it could find out about released Gitmo prisoners, some findings:
“* Once the detainees arrived in other countries, 205 of the 245 were either freed without being charged or were cleared of charges related to their detention at Guantanamo. Forty either stand charged with crimes or continue to be detained.
* The Afghan government has freed every one of the more than 83 Afghans sent home. Lawmaker Sibghatullah Mujaddedi, the head of Afghanistan’s reconciliation commission, said many were innocent and wound up at Guantanamo because of tribal or personal rivalries.
* At least 67 of 70 repatriated Pakistanis are free after spending a year in Adiala Jail. A senior Pakistani Interior Ministry official said investigators determined that most had been “sold” for bounties to U.S. forces by Afghan warlords who invented links between the men and al-Qaida.
* All 29 detainees who were repatriated to Britain, Spain, Germany, Russia, Australia, Turkey, Denmark, Bahrain and the Maldives were freed, some within hours after being sent home for “continued detention.”
V-I-C-T-O-R-Y.
Incidently, a question about the George W Bush presidential library: why will it cost $500 million for a library that will host papers no one will ever be allowed to read and one book ‘My Pet Goat’?