I Dream Awake

An explosive and lengthy document has been released and translated describing the relationship betweem Saddam’s Iraq and the Taliban. It is a must read for anyone willing to have their views about everything we’ve thought we’ve known shaken up hard.

I’ve thought for a long time now that one massive failure on the part of the Bush Administration has been sitting on the millions of documents that have gone untranslated since their capture during the fall of Saddam’s regime. Many documents were translated right away to be sure, but the vast majority went unreleased and untranslated for lack of personnel dedicated to the task. Bush and his war cabinet should have been front and center from day 1 hammering away at how important a job getting a full and immediate translation of all of the documents recovered was in what has been essentially the first full blown information age war. They should have demanded from Congress the funds to make it happen, trumpeted loudly educational incentives for students who dedicate themselves to the study of languages and cultures most important to our current conflicts, and pressured the Pentagon to do in 2003 what they finally did just recently: Release large amounts of the untranslated documents so that the general American public can engage in their translation directly. No matter what one’s position on the war itself might be, I think everyone should be in agreement in criticisng the administration on this one point.

Whether they are winning the political and military war in Iraq itself or not is up for what is a far too often bitter debate, but it is clear to me that they have totally blown the media war about the war.