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• Friday, November 28, 2008 04:24 PM

  @ Timothy3

  Correct me if I am wrong, but hasn't Obama said he would transgress Pakistan's border without their blessing (if he couldn't get it) to capture (or take out) Bin Laden? Hasn't the government of Pakistan said that they would object to this?

  Like any other sovereign nation, they rather object to the militaries of other nations just prancing in without an invite.

  Really. I would like to understand this better. I do not understand why every fight with Al Queda, Al Queda Iraq, Al Queda Saudi Arabia, Al Queda-cobbled-together-however must be our fight.

  In 2001, we were attacked by people of mostly Saudi nationality, weren't we? We decided these were people of Al Queda -- with some good reason. We went to Afghanistan to show that we couldn't be pushed around by terrorists and to get Bin Laden.

  Then, in 2003, like a puppy who is shown a new toy, we abandoned that substantive bone to depose Saddam and search for non-existent WMD -- never found. We destroyed a fairly functioning but non-democratic government, we displaced millions of civilians, we killed perfectly innocent people, we helped start a near-civil war, we captured people and held them without trial, we embarrassed ourselves and upset Muslims via Abu Graib, we pissed away every possible advantage to bring the Sunnis into the would-be new government, we allowed the destruction of priceless art and the dome of one beautiful and sacred Mosque, we spied upon Americans by enlisting the telecoms, we spent an unbelievable and unacceptable amount of money by borrowing from nations like China -- none of this is in order -- and now we are going to take troops from Iraq and deploy them to Pakistan.

  Finally, in 2008, the puppy remembered the bone.

  There is just one problem: Everything has changed since then. We have reconfigured the world. We have squandered goodwill. We have created terrorists and become as terrorits ourselves. Yes, I may be stretching that definition a bit, but when do we get ashamed enough to consider that maybe we don't get to tell the rest of the world how to live and that we don't have the resources, the intelligence, or the moral authority to keep interfering with everything that goes wrong everywhere else.

  You never step in the same stream twice. It is no longer 2002.

  I think such talk of going after Bin Laden smacks of so-called John Wayne macho nonsense. Bin Laden is one man. Al Queda -- in one form or another -- is all over the Middle East. Forgive me for mixing my metaphors, but that bone (Bin Laden) is buried, well dug in. How are we going to get him and "stamp out Al Queda once and for all" without making everything worse?

  —AKA Smith Read AKA Smith's other letters
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