Terrorism for Dummies

Aaron Eisenberg sent me the link to this interesting article on Bush's dependence on terrorism for success.

Here's what I don't understand:

After September 11th, President Bush declared this new war against the Al Qaeda network a "new kind of war" against a "new kind of enemy." And I agreed with him. We were not fighting the traditional battle, nation-against-nation. There were no clear boundaries or geographic locations of our enemy. Instead, it was, and still is, a network of terrorists spread throughout many countries in Asia, Europe, Africa, and even the United States.

The problem is, President Bush and his war hawk administration decided to fight this war in a old-war kind of way. In waging war on one country that had no ties to September 11th (remember-Saddam and Osama couldn't stand one another), we wasted the incredible resources of the wealthiest nation in the world on an expensive and ineffective war. The tactic of invading Iraq is like trying to kill a swarm of gnats with a cannonball.

If we had put the $200 billion we've spent on the war thus far (with another few hundred billion likely to follow) into partnerships with other countries in cover operations to destroy the terrorist network, I think we would all be much safer right now. We could likely have caught Osama bin Laden by now as well as his many deputies. Instead, we are fighting the Iraq War and are no safer than before Sept. 11.

--Max

ALSO-remember to check back on Saturday for our Scott McClellan tribute!