Let's invade South America to surprise the terrorists

You may recall Richard Clarke's comment in his testimony to the 9/11 committee that Bush's call to invade Iraq after 9/11 was sort of like calling for the invasion of Mexico after Pearl Harbor. Don't laugh, but Cheney's office called for that after 9/11 according to this article.

Days after 9/11, a senior Pentagon official lamented the lack of good targets in Afghanistan and proposed instead U.S. military attacks in South America or Southeast Asia as "a surprise to the terrorists," according to a footnote in the recent 9/11 Commission Report. The unsigned top-secret memo, which the panel's report said appears to have been written by Defense Under Secretary Douglas Feith, is one of several Pentagon documents uncovered by the commission which advance unorthodox ideas for the war on terror. The memo suggested "hitting targets outside the Middle East in the initial offensive" or a "non-Al Qaeda target like Iraq," the panel's report states. U.S. attacks in Latin America and Southeast Asia were portrayed as a way to catch the terrorists off guard when they were expecting an assault on Afghanistan.

Hat tip to Atrios, who appears to have set his computer ahead two hours instead of one for summer time. It does keep it light until well into the night.