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Priorities, Priorities, Priorities...

What do you think the Bush administration's are when it comes to protecting us from the evildoers? It's all-military alll-the-time:

"Our long-term strategy to keep the peace is to help change the conditions that give rise to extremism and terror by spreading the universal principle of human liberty," Bush said in March 2005.

But a close look at the United States' counter-terrorism priorities shows a strategy going in a different direction.

In recent years, the Pentagon has received a larger share of the counter-terrorism budget, whereas "indirect action" programs to win the campaign through diplomacy and other nonmilitary means have struggled for funding and attention, according to a review of budget documents and interviews with dozens of current and former U.S. officials.

The article from the L.A. Times continues:

Nonmilitary counter-terrorism programs have budgets that are measured in millions instead of billions, and in many cases are seeing their funding remain flat or drop.

Even within the Pentagon, many "soft power" programs, which don't include direct military action, appear to be getting squeezed out as more money goes to support combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and special forces missions elsewhere.

Some top counter-terrorism officials, seeing their noncombat programs languishing, are leaving the government, including a top Pentagon official.

Three at the State Department who ran the highly regarded Regional Strategic Initiative are also leaving.

And increasingly, even civilian anti-terrorism operations are being run by current or former military members.

The shift has troubled many terrorism experts.

And then there's this:

The funding squeeze has meant that the State Department's Regional Strategic Initiative, a key counter-terrorism program, nearly ceased operations last year for lack of funding just as it was getting off the ground.

Its annual budget is about $1 million � roughly what the Pentagon spends on counterterrorism in Iraq every five minutes.

"The fact that they can only get $1 million is criminal. It is unconscionable," said Robert Richer, who retired as associate deputy CIA director for operations in 2005.

"Most of the war on terrorism should have nothing to do with guys with guns. But we have walked away from the hearts-and-minds campaign."

Hearts and Minds. The only thing these people in the Bush administration know how to do is to blast away. There's no long-term strategy...only a short-term "shoot-'em-up" mentality.

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