7 Years Ago Today

Via The Progress Report:

SEVEN YEARS AGO TODAY, BUSH RECEIVED
'BIN LADEN DETERMINED TO STRIKE IN U.S.' MEMO:

Today marks the seventh anniversary of the day President Bush received a President's Daily Brief entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S." (See the memo here.) At the time, Bush was vacationing at his ranch in Crawford, TX; he stayed on vacation for the rest of August 2001. According to the 9/11 Commission report, Bush "did not recall discussing the August 6 report with the Attorney General" and there was "no indication" that there was "any further discussion before Sept. 11 among the President and his top advisers of the possibility of a threat of an al Qaeda attack in the United States" after Bush received the memo. The day after he received the memo, "Bush seemed carefree as he spoke about the books he was reading, the work he was doing on his nearby ranch, his love of hot-weather jogging, his golf game and his 55th birthday," the Washington Post noted. The President has since admitted that he "didn't feel that sense of urgency, and my blood was not nearly as boiling" in the months before 9/11. Today -- 2,557 days later -- bin Laden still remains free and "determined to strike in U.S."

And the bush version of the "Where's Waldo?" game continues.

Meanwhile, Admiral Mullen had this to say about Afghanistan last month:

"It is urgent. It is one where the violence is growing."
-- Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, 7/22/08

But not to fear! In less than a month everything is now all hunky dory in bush land:

"I would take issue with the characterization that there's anything desperate about the situation in Afghanistan, anything urgent or precarious about the situation in Afghanistan." -- Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell, 8/5/08

See... All is well because they waved a magic wand and say it is so!

And here is a peek back at December of 2001... Just a reminder as to whom we have to applaud for the Iraq distraction - ya know? The illegal invasion and occupation - from the real battlefront in Afghanistan:

Outside the administration, there is still a lobby pressing for a move against Iraq, but it is President Bush's strong political standing as a wartime commander in chief that will be essential in preparing the country and its allies for an Iraq campaign, foreign diplomats and administration officials say.

On Dec. 5, Congressional leaders sought to frame the justification for attacking Mr. Hussein in a letter to the president.

''For as long as Saddam Hussein is in power in Baghdad, he will seek to acquire weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them,'' said the letter, signed by Senators Trent Lott, Joseph I. Lieberman and John McCain, among others. ''We have no doubt that these deadly weapons are intended for use against the United States and its allies. Consequently, we believe we must directly confront Saddam, sooner rather than later.''

Any particular names jump out at you up there?