Bush's Convenient Declassifications

With his approval rating topping out these days at around 35 percent, President Bush has fallen back on an oft-used strategy: he's declassified imformation from two years ago about links between Osama bin Laden and the deceased terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and a planned attack within in the United States. What's the purpose of releasing this information now? To scare the living daylights out of every man, woman and child in America. It's worked before, but will it work this time? I don't think so.

There are several reasons why Bush is so consistently, woefully unpopular right now. But I believe one of the fundamental ones is that he's become a parody of himself and the country just isn't falling for his scare and then sooth act. "We're gonna get attacked again" followed by "we're winning the war on terror". It's tragic that every time information like this is released I have to assume that it's for political reasons. Of course the hypocrisy of Bush's declassifications is also clear for anyone to see. Whenever the press breaks a story that includes classified info, Bush cries foul, but when it serves his needs all classified information is fair game.

Today, Bush is delivering a commencement address at the Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut, where he will use this declassified information to yet again try to justify the War in Iraq. I'm sure the audience will politely applaud as Bush goes through his familiar litany ("they'll follow us here" etc. etc.) but most likely the cadets will be thinking to themselves-haven't we heard this before?