Code Red

Now let me be clear.

In now way am I denigrating the work of British police who have apparently broken up a plot by al Qaeda style terrorists to bomb US bound airplanes.

(Though I will point out that this is exactly the kind of police and intelligence, as opposed to military action, that the wisemen of BushCorp™ scoffed at when proposed by John Kerry).

But let us for a moment consider the timing.

We haven't seen an alert of ANY color since the 2004 election cycle. And now, just a few months before midterms the much mocked code system has yet again raised its particolored head.

Coincidence? Let us assume so.

For though Rove's marching orders are for GOPers to continue to howl in the same vein as the last two election cycles, all terror all the time, the situation on the ground is hardly the same.

In 2002 the electorate was still aching over the tragedy of 9/11, and GW hadn't (publicly) demonstrated the level of his incompetence.

And while in 2004 that incompetence was well evident to some, the Iraqi invasion had yet to reach its current level of chaos.

But in 2006, and ignore them GOPers might, facts on the ground are finally impacting American perceptions of this administration, as well as America's place in the world.

So today's news is rather more a mixed bag for the Bushies who couldn't shoot straight.

Sure it helps their usual message: be afraid, be very afraid.

But, after 1.5 seconds of thought, it also raises this question: Why, five years after 9/11, is al Qaeda still operational?

Why is bin Laden still wandering the hills of Pakistan?

And how, exactly, does our continuing misadventure in Iraq do ANYTHING to alleviate the real terrorist threat?

And if we're "fighting them over there, so we don't have to fight them here", shouldn't we be invading England?

Today's terrorists were, after all, British citizens of Pakistani birth (perhaps we should invade Pakistan?), who were recruited after, and quite possibly because of our invasion of Iraq.

In Iraq, in the Levant, and araound the world, BushCorp™'s "policies" are worse than ineffective. Thank God Americans are finally beginning to stand up and take notice.