Ok, let me lay a bit of education down on some people

[confessionalbox]

It disturbs me that a lot of people are buying into Bush's argument that he needs the warrantless wiretaps because of time sensitivity issues, essentially saying that that getting warrants could hamper the gathering of intelligence. If this were in fact true, I would be saying that we need a law to handle this, a law that would make this kind of

Comments

impeach now??? please???

[nikki42]

The more I hear about it, the more it pisses me off.

Credibility

[bookboy]

As a foreign observer I would add that all of this creates an impression that the US administration has no moral principles. Terrorism can never be defeated by military action alone - hearts and minds have to be won over for a long-term resolution of the problem. Sticking to moral principles and agreed legal constraints goes a long way towards persuading people in distant lands that the US is right and the terrorists are wrong.

Re: Credibility

[confessionalbox]

you are of course absolutely correct in your assesment. That is the worst part of our current administration, the fact that it will take decades for us to regain our credibility.

From a terrorism angle we have blundered so badly it is beyond comprehension. I am sure that if Osama is out there he must have been thrilled to see us invade Iraq. I am not sure even he could have imagined that we would actually go the full invasion and occupation route. Doing so has created literally generations of Jihadists, and furthered the perception of an agressively anti Islam west in the region. Invading Iraq is probably the worst thing we could have done short of bombing Mecca and Medina.