Intelligence Assessment Conclusions: Repeat, Repeat, Repeat

I can't tell you how strongly I agree with a suggestion by Glenn Greenwald in his recent post about the incredibly damning conclusions of the classified April National Intelligence Estimate, recently reported on by the New York Times, Washington Post and L.A. Times:

This report alone ought to dictate the outcome of the election: If I were shaping the Democrats' election strategy, I would create a television commercial where someone reads the following four paragraphs -- from a new report in the NYT today [Sunday] -- and then I would air it over and over and over every single day as much as possible until November 7:

A stark assessment of terrorism trends by American intelligence agencies has found that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks.

The classified National Intelligence Estimate attributes a more direct role to the Iraq war in fueling radicalism than that presented either in recent White House documents or in a report released Wednesday by the House Intelligence Committee, according to several officials in Washington involved in preparing the assessment or who have read the final document.

The intelligence estimate, completed in April, is the first formal appraisal of global terrorism by United States intelligence agencies since the Iraq war began, and represents a consensus view of the 16 disparate spy services inside government. Titled “Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States,’’ it asserts that Islamic radicalism, rather than being in retreat, has metastasized and spread across the globe.

The report “says that the Iraq war has made the overall terrorism problem worse,” said one American intelligence official.

Remarkably, but certainly not surprisingly, Bush and his bunch are putting the word out that they "disagree" with the findings of the National Intelligence Estimate. Yes, Bush and his reality avoidance team are claiming that their spin machine is more accurate than the combined fact finding and analysis skills of our top 16 intelligence outfits. As they've done many times in the past, Bush and his cohorts are denying reality and refuting facts that don't quite fit their predetermined frames and -- most of all -- their political strategies.

With Republicans again attempting to convince us that we must vote for them, regardless of other considerations, because only they can protect us from terrorism, this intelligence assessment is a severely embarassing development. Its conclusions fly in the face of repeated pronouncements by Bush and his cronies that Iraq is helping us "win" the war on terrorism. On the contrary -- the neocons' Iraq invasion and occupation has made the situation much worse, worldwide.

If the Dems don't take advantage of the intelligence community's revelation of the truth about Bush's war and the neocon strategy, I don't know what else can be done to help them bring the facts to the American people before November. The assessment powerfully refutes the very basis for Bush's presidency, as well as the campaign talking points being used by Republican candidates all over the nation. Clearly, Bush and the Republicans are now running purely on distortions. They aren't "making us safer," they're increasing the dangers we face now and for years to come.

If Dems can't point that out forcefully and repeatedly, I really will have little hope left for them as any kind of genuine or competitive opposition party. And I'm afraid they will lose, once again, in November.

What do you think?