Much attention has been paid to a recent article in The New Republic titled "Pakistan for Bush. July Surprise?". The premise is that the Bush campaign/administration has been secretly pressuring Pakistan to produce "High-Value Targets" (HVTs) before the November elections. In other words, they want the Pakistanis to capture and produce important al Qaeda operatives in time to help Bush win re-election. More to the point, John Judis, Spencer Ackerman & Massoud Ansari (the TNR article authors) relate Pakistani Intelligence claims that the Bushies want the HVTs produced sometime on July 28, 27 or 28 -- during the beginning of the Democratic National Convention in Boston.

Now, much can be said about the crass politicization of national security involved in this -- to paraphrase Michael Froomkin of Discourse.net, is nothing sacred, is there no concern of national honor too important that the Bushies won't use it for political gain? (the answer of course, with this bunch, is "hell, no" -- playing politics with national security and the fears of the average American is the modern rightwing-dominated, dittohead GOP's stock-in-trade.) But no one can quibble with the fact that capturing al Qaeda leadership is a good idea.

The larger issue, I think, is the more serious question: if al Qaeda operatives can be captured and produced on cue, then why the hell have we been allowing them to roam free for the last three years? The answer, of course, once again has to do with politics: Bush wanted a war with Iraq, and couldn't afford the distraction or use of resources for dealing with actual dangers to the U.S. Just as the Bush administration nixed plans three times in 2002 and 2003 to nab Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the terrorist mastermind, because doing so would have undermined its case for invading Iraq, we now see that actual national security issues have been quite secondary for this bunch.

In other words, protecting America isn't the priority for the Bush administration or today's GOP. Rather, base ideology and political gain come first. Leaving such people in power represents an extraordinary risk for our country, and after September 11, 2001, one we dare not continue to take.

Imagine that -- the Bush Whitehouse has been caught red-handed using the "war on terror" for crass political gain:

a White House aide told [Pakistani Lieutenant General] ul-Haq last spring that "it would be best if the arrest or killing of [any] [High Value Target] were announced on twenty-six, twenty-seven, or twenty-eight July"--the first three days of the Democratic National Convention in Boston.

Of course, this really isn't anything new. The Bush administration (and the Bush campaign) have been using people's fear of terrorism and capitalizing on the deaths of 3000 Americans for shameless, base political purposes since September 11, 2001. The War in Iraq, tax cuts, secrecy, lies...the list is endless.

The GoP likes to call this "playing politics". The only problem is that the GoP uses that term to intimidate legitimate criticism. In this case, you have a dirty tricks and lies campaign that would have made Nixon blush with shame.

And while we're at it, it's worth noting the Bush administration's lack of concern for capturing our enemies and protecting Americans when political capital wasn't at stake. Zarqawi, our latest al Qaeda boogeyman in Iraq, was allowed to go free by the Bushies in order to make the case for war with Iraq. He's been responsible for over 800 deaths since then -- deaths that are ultimately on the heads of the ghouls in the administration.

How anyone can in good conscience contine to support these traitors and charlatans is beyond me...