Fun with Surber.

Following TS's post below, I posted this at Surber's in comments (he's deleted my comments before, so I'm reposting here):

This notion that speaking to hostile countries is “hugging” them is objectively perposterous. Reagan met how many times with the USSR? Nixon went to China. The Bushies went to N. Korea. Etc. Ad nauseum.

Grow up.

And doesn’t the Bush Doctrine say that if a nation harbors a terrorist, it’s just as guilty as the terrorist? So under that Doctrine, Obama would be justified in taking out al Qaeda in Pakistan.

Also, if the standard for being tough on al Qaeda is using nukes, Bush has failed that test as well. And since al Qaeda is stronger now than it was on 9/10, according to the Bush Administration’s own report, your party — which has presided over this debacle and has been unable to achieve victory in 2 wars — is in no position to lecture anyone on how to defeat them.

Surber's scintillating rebuttal:

Reply: Excuse me, al-Qaeda is not stronger than in 2001. Two years, that’s 2005. Try to pay attention to the facts.

I'm assuming Surber misread "2 wars" as "two years." But he seemed completely stumped on the other points.

So I replied:

Two years? What are you talking about?

I made like 4 points in that post and you only disputed 1 of them, so I assume you’re conceding the rest.

But I think it’s you that needs to pay closer attention.

From the CS Monitor, last month:

“The release of a new report Tuesday that says Al Qaeda has reorganized to pre-9/11 strength and is preparing for a major US strike has sparked debate among government officials and observers about the Bush administration’s foreign policy and counterterrorism efforts.”

…

Al Qaeda is “considerably operationally stronger than a year ago” and has “regrouped to an extent not seen since 2001,” the counterterrorism official said, paraphrasing the report’s conclusions. “They are showing greater and greater ability to plan attacks in Europe and the United States.”

…

Bush and the GOP have failed to get bin Laden. They’ve failed to eradicate the Taliban. They’ve failed to eliminate al Qaeda.

Again, Bush followers have no grounds to lecture anyone on national security.

It's always amusing how, when these people are called on their shallow talking points, they clam right up.