Quote of the Day

We are fighting these terrorists with our military in Afghanistan and Iraq and beyond so we do not have to face them in the streets of our own cities. - George Bush

Wrong again chimpy.

It continues to amaze me how so many on the right have such a simplistic view of the "war on terrorism". First off, can we stop calling it a "war"? War is something that nations engage in, or at the very least have organized and marked belligerent combatants. Using the word "war" implies there are clear boundaries and a set of rules for "winning" and "losing".

No such thing exists in relation to terrorism. This is simply a military, police, and intelligence operation whose goal is to confront perpetrators of violence.

Reality and rhetoric rarely have much in common. Despite the massive IQ drain caused by a wet brain being President, our intelligence community, as well as our military, employ some very sharp individuals. I'm quite sure that they realize that the terrorists are individuals and amorphous. They hide behind a veneer of normalcy, and that is their advantage. They can be anyone, and anywhere.

But that is too complex a concept for the general public. Therefore - our government has re-cast this operation into a "war" and given it characteristics of past wars which simply do not exist.

American's generally expect results. Somehow chimpy has convinced a large number of people that if we "win" in Iraq, then we win the "war" on terrorism. That simply is not the case. If Americans knew that this operation has no end in the very long foreseeable future, what would their reaction be?

Quite a few wingers think the solution is to invade, conquer, occupy, and convert to Christianity every Muslim nation on this planet. If you think there are a lot of martyr wannabies out there now, give that one a shot.

The only way to resolve radical Islamic terrorism is to address the causes of it. I'm not advocating "giving in", or appeasement. I'm simply suggesting that there is a reason why they are so pissed off. Figure out exactly what it is, and develop a strategy to remove the reasons.

In fact, I think the English should be leading the whole thing, not the neocons in D.C. England had it's hands full with the IRA, and knows full well that a military only response is simply an invitation to further disasters.

The central front of the "war" on terrorism is not Iraq. It's Israel. Iraq has been nothing but a huge distraction from that.

One final point, and I'm just going to throw this out there without a whole lot of thought, so try to refrain flaming me for flippancy. It's just a thought.

But...

How many Americans have been killed by terrorism in the last 5 years? Lets include 9/11, and those killed in Afghanistan and Iraq. I'm too lazy to get the true number, so lets say roughly 6,000.

Lets compare that to another category of event that claims American lives. Roughly 42,000 people die each year in motor vehicle accidents. Multiply that by 5 and you have 210,000 fatalities.

I point that out only as a measure of context, not to diminish the tragedy of lives lost due to terrorism. Still, isn't it interesting that the major focus of funding and media coverage is terrorism? Terrorism claims about 3% of the lives that car accidents do, and our entire culture has gone bat-shit crazy over it.

The engineer in me would look at these numbers and say our focus is completely misplaced.