1115.org

It’s not often that I feel compelled to criticize McClatchy’s coverage of Bush deeds and misdeeds, but I really think they got it wrong on this one:

Even as it faces an enduring terrorist threat and rising violence in Afghanistan, the Bush administration has failed to develop a comprehensive plan to eliminate al Qaida and its sanctuary in Pakistan’s remote tribal region, the investigative arm of Congress said Thursday.
[...]
President Bush and his senior aides say that their top national-security priority is eliminating the threat posed by bin Laden’s al Qaida network and other Islamic terrorist groups from their sanctuary on Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan.

But the GAO report says that the United States has no plan that “includes all elements of national power — diplomatic, military, intelligence, development assistance, economic and law enforcement support — called for by the various national-security strategies and Congress.”

“The United States has not met its national security goals to destroy the terrorist threat and close the safe haven in Pakistan’s FATA region,” it says, referring to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

McClatchy describes the GAO report as “scathing”, and really piles on to the Bush administration for not having a comprehensive strategy in place for dealing with al Qaeda where they really are.

But let’s remember that these guys had a comprehensive strategy for Afghanistan, they had one for Iraq. Do we really want them to have one for Pakistan too? Haven’t we screwed up enough of that part of the world already?