It is a time of freedom and fear, of Gaia and of borders, of many paths and the widening of
a universal toll road, emptying country and swelling cities, of the public bought into
privacy and the privacy of the public sold into invisible data banks and knowing
algorithms. It is the time of the warrior's peace and the miser's charity, when the
planting of a seed is an act of conscientious objection.
These are the times when maps fade and direction is lost. Forwards is backwards now, so we glance sideways at the strange lands through which we are all passing, knowing for certain only that our destination has disappeared. We are unready to meet these times, but we proceed nonetheless, adapting as we wander, reshaping the Earth with every tread. Behind us we have left the old times, the standard times, the high times. Welcome to the irregular times. Dude, Where's my Intelligence? Take a look what Bush said in July, 2003. This was in response to a question about the claim he made in the 2003 State of the Union speech, that Iraq was attempting to buy uranium from Africa: "Well, let me first say that -- I think the intelligence I get is darn good intelligence. And the speeches I have given were backed by good intelligence.... And it's the same intelligence, by the way, that my predecessor used to make the decision he made in 1998." --George W. Bush, July 14, 2003 (Source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/07/20030714-3.html) Wow! This is some seriously fuzzy thinking. This guy has no idea what's going on. Listen, Bush: First of all, as just about everyone agrees, the intelligence in question was bogus. Second, it follows that the speech you gave was based on bogus (i.e. not "good") intelligence. Third, Clinton did not have this intelligence when he decided to bomb Iraq in 1998. Fourth, if your decision to go to war was based on the same intelligence Clinton used in 1998, that intelligence was at least five years old at the time. It's one helluva stretch to say that five-year-old intelligence about an "imminent threat" is "darn good intelligence." Wha' happen'? Return to the Irregular Times Main Page
Read our Blog Archives
|