http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15378263.htm

I hate Cheyney, is there a bumper sticker for that?

That opinion piece is full of more holes than a Palestinian propaganda ambulance bonnet.

That opinion piece is full of more holes than a Palestinian propaganda ambulance bonnet.

I can not say I see that many holes honestly. You and I may, or may not, agree with it, but logically it is fairly sound.

Over the past 3 years the threat of yet another undisclosed terrorist plot (or even simply just raising an alert) has been used repeatedly at times when crucial votes needed to be made. It happened too often for me to believe it was coincidence, but then I am somewhat removed from the American media so I may be wrong (though reading this article it seems at least there are some Americans who agree with me).

Bush's diminishing approval ratings are hardly wishful thinking, and no amount of fighting in Iraq has prevented any terrorist attack since the invasion there started. You can reasonably argue that invading Afghanistan and toppling the Taleban has prevented some large scale attacks by robbing Al-Queda from some of its political, financial and logistical support, but as bombings in Bali, Madrid and Marok have shown it has not slowed them down much. Besides there are at least a dozen countries in the world where muslim terrorist can, and likely have, set up camp. Powerful as the US army is, it can not invade and control them all at the same time. Bombing them back into the stone age is neither going over well with the rest of the world and will cause a minor refugee problem of, say, a couple of hundred million people (destabilising the region and creating an ideal environment for those terrorist to hide and recruit in).
On the other hand, terrorist plots that were foiled, have been done by regular police work, supported by alert national security agencies (or the other way around). The 400 billion dollar the invasion of Iraq has cost so far could have been more productively spent on less big brother and more intelligent intelligence gathering and on removing the resentment that is the primary cause for young people to be drawn into the clutches of terrorist recruiters. It would have had more of a positive impact on stopping terrorists than fighting a war did.

The writer of the article is absolutely correct in stating that terrorists are not interested in territory, and that they will relocate to other areas when pressured. Military force is not going to of much use to stop them (Al-Queda simply splintered and relocated across the globe when it lost its bases in Afghanistan).

Unlike the author though, I have less optimism about the reason why the same old scare tactic no longer works. He beliefs the American people are wisening up, me I fear they simply are getting tired of hearing cried 'wolf' without a howl to proof it is real.


Eri