If you dare go to the whitehouse web location and read through the transcripts of Wednesday's press briefing, you will see the fur flying all about as Tony scratches for an answer that is defendable.
Do you think he wins his argument? have a look:
Q Well, again, the report says, "factors fueling the movement outweigh the vulnerabilities." It says they're not --As one reporter later in the briefing suggests, it seems that the release of the declassified segments of the NIE are like a "political Rorschach test. If you're looking at the NIE and you're predisposed to be critical of the war in Iraq, you see -- you read it that more terrorists are being created." But, if you read it like the President and his pals, it reads like we are winning the war on terror. What say you?
MR. SNOW: Yes, but --
Q -- that the movement has grown, and that it's harder to find and harder to prevent attacks.
MR. SNOW: I believe what it says. You've gotten it about right.
Q And they're training new leaders who are being battle-tested in Iraq.
MR. SNOW: No, it says -- let's run through it, because these are all good questions. First, it says -- let's see -- what you're talking about -- I'm sorry. Where are we here? Rephrase the one that you're going after here.
Q Let's see --
Q The vulnerabilities question.
Q Right. Well, we can go back over -- I can read you verbatim --
MR. SNOW: All right, here we go. Yes, the -- okay, that's -- thank you.
Q -- but we're also talking about harder -- you know, the "confluence of shared purpose and dispersed actors will make it harder to find and undermine jihadist groups."
MR. SNOW: Right. Which is precisely why the President has said -- if you look back at what the President has been saying, he says it's numerous and more dispersed. We're not disagreeing with that. I'm not trying to pick a fight with it.
What I'm trying to tell you is, there's a difference between an al Qaeda that has training camps, that has the operational ability. What this is talking about is the ability to get people to say, I'm a jihadist, and be angry, to identify themselves as part of a movement. It's not the same --
Q Tony, he says we're winning the war on terrorism. That's what he says.
MR. SNOW: I know.
1 comment:
What the NIE didn't say
Terrorist training camps were the first iteration, Model A of jihadi terror. They were modeled on how states trained troops. The lessons learned resulted in Model B, that the camps were unnecessary, anyone who can read can become a sucessful terrorist.
The US is waging conventional 'war' in a physically targetless environment. We need to address motivation. Motivation is the only difference between an upstanding citizen and a terrorist. E. g: the Beltway sniper(s), and Oklahoma City. The US Army is not a tool for addressing motivation.
The war on terror would be better fought by the State or Education departments. Nutters aren't going to be cracked by the hammer since the only difference between a nutter and a citizen is motivation. That's why the President want to preserve his right to designate anyone, anywhere, an 'enemy combatant' and put your ass away without trial for life based on his assessment of your motivation.
This mental health moment brought to you by your government.
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