WWRD What Would Ronald Reagan Do?

Every weekend one of my highlights of the week is sitting down for breakfast and spending at least 2 hours reading the newspaper on a Sunday morning. This weekend was a little different because I started with the Saturday newspapers.

There was a Saturday front page story in the Wisconsin State Journal criticizing Pentagon officials for undercutting intelligence by insisting there was a close relationship between Saddam Hussein and al-Quida. Acting Inspector General Thomas F. Gimble told the Senate Armed Service committee that the office took "inappropriate actions" in advancing conclusions on the connection between al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein. (Robert Burns, Associated Press 2/10/07)

The White House spokesman Dana Perino said President Bush has revamped the U.S. spy community to try avoid ing a repeat of flawed intelligence affecting policy decisions by creating a director of national intelligence and making other changes.

What makes this story interesting was that as you contiue reading the article there is another story on page 6. The title of the story reads "Gates: Bombs linked to Iran". New Secretary of Defense Robert Gates stated that they have serial numbers and other markings on bombs suggest that Iranians are linked to deadly explosives used by Iraqi militants.

President Bush has told people that he admired President Reagan and wanted his administration to be modeled after the late great Ronald Reagan. There are two things that

contradict President Reagan. The first is that Reagan would not deal with the situation by creating a post that expands the government bureaucracy. The second deals with a famous phrase he used during the Cold War.... "trust but verify". The one word "trust" is essential when outlining strategy based upon intelligence.

When we made a pre-emptive strike in Iraq the world was watching us. What trust will others in the world have if we give correct information and no listens to us due to a lack of credibility in our intelligence findings due to false information?

Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr. had trust in Colin Powell. Apparently our current President Bush does not beleive in him because he ran him out of Washington. Do not worry we have a director of national intelligence that will solve all of our problems. Maybe Mr. Gimble will be getting a Presidential Medal of Honor for his work?