Post #82

Subject: Jihad Joe vs. Afghan Ali

"Has the Bush doctrine of a Global War on Terror backfired? Does the president's focus suggest a fixed enemy that can be defeated through a permanent military campaign or do you think we need a broader approach as many military leaders believe?"

John Edwards, former Senator and current Democratic Presidential hopeful, wants to know. He submitted that question for the GOP Presidential debate last night -- about a third of the debate questions were from submissions to Politico.com. Take away the verbosity [!?!] and you have the whole Iraq war boiled down: “… a fixed enemy that can be defeated through a permanent military campaign or… we need a broader approach?”

Who are we fighting? On May 1 – a day that will live in infamy, George W. Bush said “It‘s true that not everyone taking instant life in Iraq wants to attack America here at home, but many do.”

So, does Jihad Joe who wants to blow up the Baghdad Babes, uh, Adult Entertainment Club deserve the same military approach as Afghan Ali who wants to fly a plane into the White House?

Bush also said, “Many also belong to the same terrorist network that attacked us on September the 11th, 2001, and wants to attack us here at home again.”

Frank Rich, columnist for The New York Times and author of The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth from 9/11 to Katrina said on TV “The fact is that al Qaeda in Iraq has nothing to do with the al Qaeda that attacked us on 9/11. The connection between 9/11 and Iraq has always been false. That they continue to repeat it, that Cheney continues to make specific claims about collaborations between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda, it‘s preposterous. And indeed, this al Qaeda [in Iraq] really threatens the Iraq government, or so-called government we‘ve set up, it‘s not going to follow us over here. That al Qaeda is in Pakistan and other places.”

Of course, the whole neo-con world view Bush continues to spew is lazy, shallow. From Bob Woodward’s State of Denial: “There is a deep feeling among some senior Bush administration officials that somehow we had not started the Iraq war. We had been attacked. Bin Laden, al-Qaeda, the other terrorists and anti-American forces – whether groups or countries or philosophies – could be lumped together. It was one war, the long war, the two-generation war… described after 9/11.”

From my Post #22, I quoted from the column “Islamo-fascism?” by Pat Buchanan, http://www.theamericancause.org/ , from September 1, 2006: “But the term represents the same lazy, shallow thinking that got us into Iraq, where Americans were persuaded that by dumping over Saddam, we were avenging 9/11.”

Bush continued, “It makes no sense to tell the enemy when you plan to start withdrawing. All the terrorists would have to do is mark their calendars and gather their strength and begin plotting how to overthrow the government and take control of the country of Iraq.”

Who? Jihad Joe or Afghan Ali? Does it make sense to spend blood and treasure fighting Joe at the expense of Ali? All I heard at the debate was that we needed to swing bigger – nobody said ”smarter.” * sigh *