Quote:
Originally posted by Mike AI@May 3 2003, 12:17 PM
I have NO doubt that we are winning the war on terrorism... However, I think we have a long way to go... the final solution will be to bring stability, prosperity, an some form of democracy/free market economics to the region. That way people have something to do with their lives, besides get mad and want to blow things up.
Bush has done a wonderful job with this respect - anyone who says otherwise is a simple partisan.....
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Really? If you only want to look at the very short-term, I suppose you can make arguments to support the statement. If you want to take it further than the end of this year, IMHO it's a very weakly constructed assertion. And I think attempting to dismiss anyone who questions your statement as a partisan is in fact nothing more than an indication of a blatantly partisan attitude on
your part.
I am glad to see the numbers of alQuaida suspects being rolled up. I believe that goes a long way toward stemming any immediate danger from THAT element. However, we aren't talking about the Iraqi army here - the foe we're up against is far more elusive. Who the fuck knows what beasts are lurking in the shadows within the shadows?
But concerns like thost Mubarak of Egypt expressed - that the war in and subsequent occupation of Iraq may in fact "spawn 100 bin Ladens" (or words to that effect) are not partisan - they are a different and perhaps more long term approach to the same data. Concerns about how the nature and the shape of the occupation of Iraq affect the overall attitude of the "Arab Street" are not partisan statements - they are a different and perhaps more long-term approach to the same data. Concerns about the ramifications of unleashing previously repressed ethnic/religious/political ideologies and fervor - call it the Iranian or Yugoslavian factor, if you will - are not partisan - they are a different and perhaps more long term approach to the same data. Not all skepticism about Rummy's assertion that the military phase of the Afghanistan operations are over - nor skepticism about the degree of control we or the "government" have over the country - are partisan - they are a different and perhaps more long term approach to the same data.
IMHO blanket rhetorical statements like "the final solution will be to bring stability, prosperity, and some form of democracy/free market economics to the region" don't come close to addressing all the issues involved. I'm not dismissing the idea that greater economic stability and opportunity could over time decrease the appeal of radical fundamentalism, but thinking it is a panacea is simplistic in the extreme. The idea that "some form of democracy" is the answer flies in the face of the political reality in the Arab world, where democracy has been a very effective tool for the very people we are opposing - the radical fundamentalists. IMHO, it just ain’t that simple.
I am not disputing the possibility that Bush has done a wonderful job, and I am certainly not suggesting that the facts indicate that he's done a bad job on this particular issue. I am simply saying that it is way too fucking early to tell how we are doing in the war on terror. This is essentially a guerrilla war, and in that kind of combat short-term victories often turn out to be far less than they seem.
Last edited by PornoDoggy at May 3 2003, 01:23 PM