The Zong

It’s Presidents’ Day! Hows about that shit-kickin‘ president of ours?

American officials said there was mounting evidence that Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, had been steadily building an operations hub in the mountainous Pakistani tribal area of North Waziristan. Until recently, the Bush administration had described Mr. bin Laden and Mr. Zawahri as detached from their followers and cut off from operational control of Al Qaeda.

Yeeee-Haw!!! That there president’s sure got them terrorists on the run since September the Eleventh, I’ll tell you what!

The new warnings are different from those made in recent months by intelligence officials and terrorism experts, who have spoken about the growing abilities of Taliban forces and Pakistani militants to launch attacks into Afghanistan. American officials say that the new intelligence is focused on Al Qaeda and points to the prospect that the terrorist network is gaining in strength despite more than five years of a sustained American-led campaign to weaken it.

Hang on a second. What the shit are you talking about?

Officials said that both American and foreign intelligence services had collected evidence leading them to conclude that at least one of the camps in Pakistan might be training operatives capable of striking Western targets. A particular concern is that the camps are frequented by British citizens of Pakistani descent who travel to Pakistan on British passports.

Uh. Go get them. Please?

During a news conference days before last November’s elections, President Bush said of the campaign against Al Qaeda: “Absolutely, we’re winning. Al Qaeda is on the run.”

But in a speech several days ago, Mr. Bush painted a more sober picture of Al Qaeda’s current strength, especially inside Pakistan.

“Taliban and Al Qaeda figures do hide in remote regions of Pakistan,” Mr. Bush said. “This is wild country; this is wilder than the Wild West. And these folks hide and recruit and launch attacks.”

“Wilder than the Wild West”? A fucking grown man said that?

Is this really happening? I was gonna call up all the presidents in my family and wish them a happy presidents’ day, but now I’m remembering that this president promised to bring those responsible for September the Eleventh to justice, and this is like the brazillionth article I’ve read in the last 6 months about Al Qaeda and the Taliban regaining power in Afghanistan. Didn’t we kill all those guys? If not, then what are we doing in Iraq? Did I miss something?

A lot of good and innocent people have died because of this War on Terror, a war that has cost many of our soldiers their lives. There’s always a bit of rhetoric about not letting these soldiers sacrifice be in vain, but I wonder if, as our enemies regroup 5 years removed from the beginning of the conflict because we’ve invaded the wrong damn country, the soldiers think that maybe “in vain” is simply a relative term.

- M.G.