Dear America,

Move over 60 Minutes, hindsight is 20/20.  And they're right (usually).

Isn't it so easy to sound off on things after the fact; isn't it brilliant to arrive at a whole slew of  new found conclusions and alternative solutions, after something's been tried and discovered untrue.

What becomes really spectacular is finding out, after everything's been said and done, that when everything said and done was proposed, long before the done was ever said, that an agreement of how to tell the story had long been reached and agreed upon...even if it appears to be a mistake, an injustice, to the level of looking like a myriad of transgressions and aggressions against a sovereign nation and "ally."

Oh I am a rambling girl today.  Just what has got me babbling, you ask?

Pakistan...while the Bushmeister rears his beautiful mind once again.


Read this.
To coin a poetic phrase from the A-Team, "don't you love it when a plan comes together."

Say what? you didn't want to go the extra mile...here...let me pick out a couple of key phrases of foresight:

"The deal was struck between the military leader General Pervez Musharraf and President George Bush after Bin Laden escaped US forces in the mountains of Tora Bora in late 2001, according to serving and retired Pakistani and US officials.

Under its terms, Pakistan would allow US forces to conduct a unilateral raid inside Pakistan in search of Bin Laden, his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and the al-Qaida No3. Afterwards, both sides agreed, Pakistan would vociferously protest the incursion.

'There was an agreement between Bush and Musharraf that if we knew where Osama was, we were going to come and get him,' said a former senior US official with knowledge of counterterrorism operations. 'The Pakistanis would put up a hue and cry, but they wouldn't stop us.'"

somehow, somebody, namely a George W., decidedly recognized a possible betrayal in the making; while in an area of the world where, let's face it, takes great consideration of how egos work large and small -- 'saving face' becomes a key negotiating tool.  How Pakistan "spontaneously" responded in "anger" all of a sudden becomes just another part of the plan.  Brilliant, isn't it?


Now, I doubt we would hear a word of this from the Obama Administration -- who, with special clearances and being privy to classified information -- knew of this all along.  Leave it to the guardian.uk to get the word out.

Here's another piece of foresight, now part of the hindsight, looking back:

"The agreement is consistent with Pakistan's unspoken policy towards CIA drone strikes in the tribal belt, which was revealed by the WikiLeaks US embassy cables last November. In August 2008, Gilani reportedly told a US official: 'I don't care if they do it, as long as they get the right people. We'll protest in the National Assembly and then ignore it.'"

that is wicked good. again, kudos to Declan Walsh for the guardian.co.uk.

Now there is someone who has been consistent with his stance on the war on terror for years; he's not just jumping on the newly organized mission to get out of the occupancy of the middle east as fast as possible -- he was already there, holding tight to our founder's libertarianism in us.  The guy who never requires a hindsight before making a sound, righteous, conscientious, decision respective of all sides, deeply keen on the original intent of this country, not to mention our golden rule, is Dr. Ron Paul.

He has an opinion column in today's Daily Bell, which as usual, is ringing off the hook.

"Hopefully bin Laden does not get the last laugh. He claimed the 9/11 attacks were designed to get the US to spread its military dangerously and excessively throughout the Middle East, bankrupting us through excessive military spending as he did the Soviets, and to cause political dissension within the United States. Some 70 percent of Americans now believe we should leave Afghanistan yet both parties seem determined to stay. The best thing we could do right now is prove bin Laden a false prophet by coming home and ending this madness on a high note."

Sure, hindsight plays a part in all this now; but to be fair, Dr. Paul has always held this position, and has never wavered. Why?  Because his mind  (as hokey as the man may sound) is, and was, wrapped around the principle of the argument --  not the politics --  the whole entire time.  Principle.  Truth.  Honor.  Integrity.  Six out of ten guts concur, these are the things that will always win in the end.

The thing is, everyone has their own gut feeling.  In a world where nothing stays the same, we make decisions based on the information we know in the moment along side the intuition we carry deep inside us.  Each and every one of us has a gut feeling, for better or worse; sometimes we listen to it, sometimes we don't -- while sometimes, even with solid, proven information right in front of us, even with the best intentions, our gut might just get it wrong. And honestly, it's probably only a 50-50 chance by today's standards.

Bush got the WMD's wrong -- or did he?  Tunnels go every which way but loose under Iraq...there was time to get rid of every shred of evidence.  Not to mention, Bush was operating at a time immediately following a catastrophic attack on America (it's real easy to pick on him for that even years later); and even though I am not "his gut"  -- I dare say, all of his actions came from a place which needed to respond to every bad guy known to man.  Sure, Poland might be used it, but for America, we were vulnerable to outside forces on American soil for only the second time in our history!  The real truth in this matter we may never come to know (and who are we kidding, what your gut says about it is the only thing that matters, am I right? our minds have been made up...no budging or turning back now...let's roll)

But let's focus on the reality Dr. Paul is illuminating here...the very thought that bin Laden led us right smack into the desert: "[Osama] claimed the 9/11 attacks were designed to get the US to spread its military dangerously and excessively throughout the Middle East, bankrupting us through excessive military spending as he did the Soviets, and to cause political dissension within the United States."  check and check mate.

For myself, I know in my heart, I evolve has a human being -- I learn new things, I discover new perspectives, I lean one way or another based on my experiences (i.e. usually thru my failures), my education, my beliefs, my faith, my respect of good over evil -- and even though I may believe I know what's right from wrong in my heart, my perspective may be very different from another.  Even still, generally speaking, my mistakes in life have been when I didn't listen to my gut, or turned off my gut altogether. While, in fair play, decisions I make today are far more evolved from when I was twelve...at least, we can only hope.

Somewhere, deep inside each and every one of us, is a knowledge superior to none.

America has made mistakes drifting from our first principles, our first intentions made into a reality and eloquently captured in our prized first documents --  that, of course, being our Declaration of Independence...our Federalist Papers...our Bill of Rights...our Constitution!

The more we have rationalized a continuation of poor choices, veering from the path to set us free, the more we have suffered.  We have essentially turned off our gut decades ago, and have simply grown accustomed to reinventing excuses, creating even greater challenges to overcome, in hopes of hiding the very truth that what we've really done is messed up. Big time.

We have messed up.  And it's nobody else' fault but our own.  Today, all things considered, hindsight is a bitch and a half (but hey, I could be wrong).

make it a good day, G

thing is...it is real easy being an armchair quarterback... especially if we add hindsight, and with or without foresight; if we had not captured and killed bin Laden, would the prevailing winds to question the mission in Afghanistan, vacate the troops, really be happening? Does the absence of one madman change everything?  Did we have this wrong all along?  What would TJ do in this instance? Who's gut do we go with?