The headline for this CNN story about Darth Cheney's recent world travels reads Cheney Asks Pakistan to Stop Al Qaida 'Regrouping'. I had to click on it just to confirm that the headline was a mistake. As a rule, Cheney doesn't ask for anything. He makes demands and threatens and twists arms. If team dubya were a mafia movie, Cheney would be the big ugly goon that always stands right behind the capo. Their were no public statements made after his meeting with Pervez Musharraf, so we don't have any details, just a press release. But trust me, there was very little "asking" going on. This particular Dick doesn't go soft.

"Cheney expressed U.S. apprehensions of regrouping of al Qaeda in the tribal areas and called for concerted efforts in countering the threat," according to a faxed statement from the presidential office.
"He expressed serious U.S. concerns on the intelligence being picked up of an impending Taliban and al Qaeda 'spring offensive' against allied forces in Afghanistan," the statement said.

Of all the many (oh so many) failures of the preznit, I think this is probably the most glaringly obvious. The fanatics who planned the attacks of 9/11 and trained and funded and brainwashed the perpetrators are not only still alive and free, but they are regrouping and planning to go on the offensive. And the US is only concerned and apprehensive enough about it to urge Pakistan to take some action. WTF? If more proof was needed that Iraq is eating our lunch, this is certainly it. I have very little doubt, even with dubya as commander-in-chief, that had we not taken our eye off the ball in Afghanistan to go start a conflagration in Iraq most of these people would be dead or captured by now. It's a disgrace that they aren't.

I think it also shows this administration's true regard for one of it's favorites in a seemingly endless supply of tough-sounding slogans, the Global War On Terror. Dubya likes to sling that one around a lot when talking about Iraq, often calling Iraq the central front in the war. I'll grant him that there's some truth to that statement now, but it absolutely was not true before we invaded and kicked off a religious civil war. Just imagine for a moment what might have happened if, back in 2003, we had left that bad man Saddam alone with his imaginary WMDs and instead focused our attention and our forces on the remote, mountainous border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Before dubya began steering the GWOT into Iraq, this region was the war on terrorism. And we walked away from it. Regardless of what their motives truly were for invading Iraq, it was never about catching the bad guys. Some of us saw that from the beginning.

Another bit of this story caught my eye:

The New York Times, citing unnamed sources, reported Monday that President Bush has decided to send a tough message to Musharraf, warning him that the Democrat-controlled Congress may cut off money to Pakistan unless it gets more aggressive in hunting down al Qaeda and Taliban operatives in its country.

Now that's just fucking hilarious. The latest weapon in the preznit's arsenal for the War on Terra is...the Democrats?!? It's a crazy world, innit?