Yet Another Sign That Something Is Starting To Smell Pretty Darned Ripe, and Not Just in Denmark

According to this morning’s Post, not only did former Presidential counterterrorism adviser Rand Beers feel the need to quit in disgust over the Bush regime’s handling of post-September 11 security, but he has joined Senator John Kerry’s presidential campaign staff as national security adviser. According to the article (which was also picked up by the comparatively conservative WTOP radio), Beers — who had worked for the NSC under presidents Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Little George — has made it his explicit goal to oust Bush from the presidency, claiming that Bush and his cohorts have done more to hinder security than help it, particularly with regard to the Iraq war (though it’s worth noting that he did not oppose that conflict). Beers believes that the Afghanistan conflict remains an unfinished job, and served only to disperse al Qaeda rather than destroying it. Though Beers is tight-lipped on certain points (well, given his position, I would certainly hope so), his wife is less so, saying, “This is an administration that determines what it thinks and then sets about to prove it. There’s almost a religious kind of certainty. There’s no curiosity about opposing points of view.”

Speaking of starting with the answer, then proceeding to find the evidence to support it, I’m surprised we haven’t heard more about the documents leaked way back in January of this year (and on which I commented at the time) establishing a formal plan to invade Iraq, a plan made immediately after the September 11 attacks. At the time, the administration was unable to make the connection between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, but in retrospect, it looks like they certainly muddied the waters enough that after all was said and done, most folks figured the two were linked somehow. Now, with no “weapons of mass destruction” to show, I bet we’ll start seeing a more concerted effort to establish some sort of linkage there. After all, physical evidence on the scale of those pesky weapons is proving a lot harder to manufacture.