Letters to the Editor
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Mythical Creatures
If you're gonna start with those, I initiate a motion to compare the War on Terror to the notorious ManBearPig (half man, half bear, and half pig, for those of you who are not informed).
;D ;D ;D
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Your focus is not truly strategic
The closest you come to the truly strategic is: "was to make an example of [Saddam] Hussein, to create a demonstration model to guide the behavior of anyone with the temerity to acquire destructive weapons or, in any way, flout the authority of the United States" and those words are Mr. Suskind's. The rest of your discussion is about the tactics to be used to implement that strategic vision. Nobody, apparently, questions the strategic view. Nobody questions the appropriateness of an American hegemony which is the true meaning of the strategic vision.
What should be obvious by now is that many people in the world don't want to be dominated by an American culture. The insurgencies and terrorism that have increased since the misguided attack on Iraq demonstrate this point. They also demonstrate the meaninglessness and stupidity of the so-called "War on Terror".
Insurgencies and terrorism are not war in the classic sense which is an attack by another country or people (and not an attack on poverty, drugs, or terrorism). Rather they usually reflect the existence of a substantial body of people with a grievance (the Symbionese Liberation Army, for example, didn't amount to a hill of beans so it's not always the case). But when it is the case, defeat in the traditional sense has no meaning. They will not go away until the underlying grievances have been addressed.
Our current difficulties will not go away until the underlying grievances (many of which are with us) are addressed and until we realize that we can be primus inter pares without dominating and/or directing the rest of the world as it pleases us.
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Editor should have inserted links to maps mentioned in first paragraph
I can find a few ethnosectarian maps online but , so far, I haven't found the more recent ones with the color scheme mentioned in the article.
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Phony War On Terror
I would be hard put to match the comments on this article. Bush's War as depicted on Frontline states it all. When the passion of greed rules, it never rules wisely. We see ego greed, the crony greed, and the greed well depicted by the sub-prime mortgage fraud. The results, whether Iraq or the economy, has been a disaster. At the present time that greed is still being rewarded. I thought we had hit bottom, but the same people that created these problems want to accelerate the race to the bottom-Amazing.
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Why the terrorists are rooting for Hillary.
Interesting that Hillary is fond of claiming to have been a key player in the formulation of Clinton Foreign Policy: 9/11 was a direct result of the Clinton Administration’s feckless responses to the numerous Al-Qaida provocations and terrorist assaults against our national interests; as well as, Clinton’s inexplicable temerity in refusing to take Osama bin Laden into captivity when offered several times by the Sudanese. Clinton then exercised little more than his jawbone as bin Laden trained literally thousands of terrorists in his Afghan camps. All of which, convinced bin Laden that he could strike our homeland with relative impunity. The potential for success in bin Laden’s planned assault on our homeland was significantly enhanced by the infamous Gorelick memo which the Clinton Administration promulgated to prohibit any terrorist information exchange between our FBI and CIA intelligence operatives. Further, in the Dec. 4, 1998 Presidential Daily Intelligence Brief , Clinton was advised that Bin Laden was preparing to hijack US aircraft to employ in terrorist attacks. He was apparently more interested in his pursuit of Monica to take follow-up action. A private matter? Hardly. With the KGB monitoring Clinton/Monica phone calls, Boris Yeltsin used the leverage to get Clinton to sponsor full Russian debt forgiveness by the World Bank. Yes, BLACKMAIL that the American taxpayers paid for dearly. Or, perhaps Slick was too preoccupied with his invasion of WACO to confront al-Quida. However, history will record the most heinous assault on America's national security interests by a U.S. president as Clinton's transfer of our most advanced missile guidance technology to the CHICOM for a few campaign shekels. A CHICOM financial arrangement that Hillary continued thru her Chinese bagman, Norman Hsu; and, her ChinaTown dishwasher scam. Does any rational person really want to return the Clinton cabal/scandals to the White House?
Greg Neubeck
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It's exhausting being outraged
First off, kudos to Cabdriver! You hit a ton of good points that scratch deeply into the surface of the current power structure.
Secondly, this article reminds me of my initial thoughts in those heady days in the autumn of 2001.
More than anything, the Neo-cons have been wagin a war through the use of language. Right out of the starting gate we had "The War on Terror" or more accurately The War on an Abstract Concept! No nation selected. No quantifiable enemy. No way to measure success or determine when we can stop pouring our money in to weapons.
Then we had all the other perverse catch phrases and sniglets of the neo-con agenda. "Islamofascists" "Freedom Fries" " 'Patriot' Act" "Surge" etc. Be careful of your words because they become thoughts. Be careful of your thoughts for they become actions.
The American people have been relentlessly manipulated on so many levels, many of them subconcious, that it's little wonder nobody understands what going on.
Dangerous times.
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BUSH NEEDS TO SHUT UP AND GO SIT DOWN
until January 2009. And why do you keep quoting the bastard anyway? Haven't those smart enough to get up every day and read at an 5th grade level (or listen to drag queen-look-alikes talking heads on MSNBC) figured out the fruit cake lied his ass off?
We know...we know...we know already. We have made no progress on defeating al-Qaida, or any of the other tribes we fight in Iraq, or bringing any kind of peace to the Middle East.
I, for one, am sick of the entire region, including perpetual whiner Israel ("we are defending ourselves..."), and wish they all would dry up and blow away.
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Other comments
First of all, the Propaganda used by the Bush administration wasn't skillfull. While extensive and aided by media cooperationm it was lazily conceived had more holes than swiss cheese. Unfortunately, the American public was easily. fooled.
As far as Clinton's involvement goes, as far as I know it is quite typical of American presidents. JFK might have done the same thing, it's not unlikely. Still Clinton worked a lot harder to stop terror when it cropped up than Bush. Americans just seem to have a problem with long-term prevention.
Also, I wanted to talk about the idea that Israel might profit, and in fact have intentionally influenced, American policy. Frankly, I think it's more likely that Israel is controlled by the US, because they'd be dead if there weren't any weapons shipment for even a month. Noam Chomsky has written extensively on this in some of his books.