Myopia

The Bush administration combines the very worst of political maneuvering at all costs, avarice, and unmitigated stupidity. Juan Cole has it best, but suffice to say that a double-agent had been secured inside al Qaeda, an amazing coup in our battle against those that would do us harm, but in the interest of political opportunism, subsequently blew his cover. From the Reuters article that broke the story:

U.S. officials providing justification for anti-terrorism alerts revealed details about a Pakistani secret agent, and confirmed his name while he was working under cover in a sting operation, Pakistani sources said on Friday.

A Pakistani intelligence source told Reuters Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan, who was arrested in Lahore secretly last month, had been actively cooperating with intelligence agents to help catch al Qaeda operatives when his name appeared in U.S. newspapers.

This is far beyond the pale. Further, even, than the act of outing a covert American operative for political purposes. Do these people not realize that in their quest for political power they are placing the lives of every American -- every man, woman and child among us -- in peril? These foolish, foolish, bastards. Or, as Dr Cole puts it:

Why in the world would Bush administration officials out a double agent working for Pakistan and the US against al-Qaeda? In a way, the motivation does not matter. If the Reuters story is true, this slip is a major screw-up that casts the gravest doubts on the competency of the administration to fight a war on terror. Either the motive was political calculation, or it was sheer stupidity. They don't deserve to be in power either way.

Well said.