Insidious Bastards

I wish I could summon the strength to say something like, "This just goes beyond the pale," or perhaps be shocked by the blatant manipulation, or something. But the truth is, I've long since passed the point of putting anything...anything at all, past this crew. I'm continually appalled, yes, but never shocked. It's been years, in fact.

In any case, by way of Josh Marshall, an excerpt from July Surprise?, in the latest issue of The New Republic, comes this I knew it moment, brought to you courtesy of the amiable fellows of Bush, Cheney, Kellog, Brown & Root, specialists in reality engineering:

A third source, an official who works under ISI's director, Lieutenant General Ehsan ul-Haq, informed tnr that the Pakistanis "have been told at every level that apprehension or killing of HVTs before [the] election is [an] absolute must." What's more, this source claims that Bush administration officials have told their Pakistani counterparts they have a date in mind for announcing this achievement: "The last ten days of July deadline has been given repeatedly by visitors to Islamabad and during [ul-Haq's] meetings in Washington." Says McCormack: "I'm aware of no such comment." But according to this ISI official, a White House aide told ul-Haq last spring that "it would be best if the arrest or killing of [any] HVT were announced on twenty-six, twenty-seven, or twenty-eight July"--the first three days of the Democratic National Convention in Boston.

That's pretty much off-the-hook, right there. But there's more:

During his March visit to Islamabad, Powell designated Pakistan a major non-nato ally, a status that allows its military to purchase a wider array of U.S. weaponry. Powell pointedly refused to criticize Musharraf for pardoning nuclear physicist A.Q. Khan--who, the previous month, had admitted exporting nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea, and Libya--declaring Khan's transgressions an "internal" Pakistani issue. In addition, the administration is pushing a five-year, $3 billion aid package for Pakistan through Congress over Democratic concerns about the country's proliferation of nuclear technology and lack of democratic reform.

Nuclear proliferation and supplying WMDs to other rogue nations. By pushing this aid package, does the administration not put the US itself in the unwelcome position of violating the Bush Doctrine? Does that not make America a state-sponsor of just the sort of terrorists against which the Bush administration claims it is fighting some sort of war? Will we be invading domestic American soil next?