-Senator John Frakkin’ Kerry, Chairman of U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
As with the 2006 Senate Intelligence Investigation into pre-war intel, and its 2008 phase II final report, this report, TORA BORA REVISITED: HOW WE FAILED TO GET BIN LADEN AND WHY IT MATTERS TODAY smacks of politicization, right from the opening get-go.
It’s nothing more than blame-handing “Bush’s fault”, right before President Obama is to announce his “new way forward” on Afghanistan. What other purpose does this serve? Hindsight comes in politically-tinted prescription glasses.
Interesting to read the “not enough boots on the ground” criticism, when a number of Dems like Kerry and Biden seem to opt for that very approach in dealing with Afghanistan today, favoring a special forces/CIA light footprint/airstrikes approach over a surge of more troops, heavier commitment and investment of funding.
Under Dem leadership, I suppose “the war of necessity” is fought by looking for the quickest exit to slink out of.
A former fetus, the “wordsmith from nantucket” was born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1968. Adopted at birth, wordsmith grew up a military brat. He achieved his B.A. in English from the University of California, Los Angeles (graduating in the top 97% of his class), where he also competed rings for the UCLA mens gymnastics team. The events of 9/11 woke him from his political slumber and malaise. Currently a personal trainer and gymnastics coach.
The wordsmith has never been to Nantucket.
You know one thing for certain, if John f’n Kerry is involved it has nothing to do with bipartisan or truthful
A quick scan of it notes many omissions, and much misinformation. I would have to write another 3400 words to correct this dross.
You’re right. this ia a smearjob on Bush and the commanders/warriors on scene at the time, for political purposes and distraction. Notice no generals were invited to this little show.
Kerry needs to stick to things he has knowledge of:
*Marrying Money
*Making Fools of the Voters in Mass.
*Slandering the Military
*Behaving like an absolute jackass when some Idiot puts a microphone in his face
And Kerry is no War Hero. His 4 months in Vietnam were short of any Heroism,
to including his “Christmas in Cambodia.”
I haven’t read it, but I am willing to bet they do not include good ol’ bill clinton’s chances and wasted opportunities to get bin laden or the fact that it was under clinton that osama was warned that he was an unindicted co-conspirator by the court forced release of confidential information. This happened during the trial of the first World Trade Center bombers when those guys were tried in criminal court – osama promptly ran to Afghanistan. I do not hold our military responsible for not capturing bin laden, nor do I hold Bush responsible. At least they tried, and I am confident they WANTED to capture or kill him.
Everything John Kerry touches turns to stupid, it’s just a matter of time with this report. I suppose the next past the sell date item he will use his chairmanship to go after will be the Swiftees, he can’t help himself, he’s a vindictive idiot.
I know Wordsmith has spent countless hours and has outstanding work to show for it on Tora Bora and Afghanistan, as well as the rest of the FA authors. These two sources I’m including is nothing new to many in here that have been reading this blog for a bit of time. The Flopping Aces archives are filled with the proof of their meticulus work. What a great place this is!!!
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/19/opinion/19franks.html?_r=1&oref=login
Lt. Gen. Michael DeLong explains the Tora Bora battle to Jed Babbin:
http://www.nationalreview.com/babbin/babbin200411010743.asp
On CNN with Larry King on Dec. 15, 2001, a viewer called in to say the U.S. should “smoke [bin Laden] out” of the Tora Bora caves. Mr. Kerry responded: “For the moment what we are doing, I think, is having its impact and it is the best way to protect our troops and sort of minimalize the proximity, if you will. I think we have been doing this pretty effectively and we should continue to do it that way.”
(From The Wall Street Journal)
@Patvann:
So, is he advocating for the lighter footprint after he was against it? Shock.