George W. Bush has made an entire presidential career out of the War On Terror. He somehow equates a hundred thousand troops in Iraq, constantly annoying the Iraqis, as the major component of that war. I’m sorry, George, but the only effect that the war in Iraq is having on terrorists is to further piss them off. Dubya has managed to antagonize most of the world in his headlong pursuit of power and more power, so we should not be too surprised that the terrorists of the world are also unhappy with Little George.
Terrorists are not stopped by troops. Terrorist are stopped by good intelligence work and good police work. That is not to say that the U.S. military does not have good intelligence services; all jokes aside, it does. From that standpoint, U.S. Military Intelligence should be a major part of our efforts to combat terrorism. But, since terrorists are too smart to come out and line up so that the Marines can shoot them, the huge military presence in the Middle East is a morbid joke.
Well, it would be a joke if so many people were not dying because of our presence in Iraq. Our own soldiers are at the top of that list for Americans, of course, but most of the deaths in Iraq since out arrival have been Iraqi deaths. It is no wonder they want us out of their country. We are, in effect, killing them off in droves. The Blackwater deaths are just one of the more clear instances of the American presence causing Iraqi deaths. If we were not occupying that country, there would be a lot fewer deadly explosions there.
Our presence in Iraq has nothing to do with the supposed “War on Terrorism.” It has everything to do with Little George’s plans to cover up his lack of presidential talent with a Commander in Chief’s uniform. He is very bad at what he is supposed to be doing. So he has used patriotism (more properly jingoism) to keep Americans scared and behind the office of the President. He is using a classical tactic of dictators everywhere and every-when: first, talk up an enemy to scare the populace, then pretend to be protecting the citizenry while you are really ransacking the treasury and, in this case, the Constitution.
Everything Little George has done in his so-called “War Against Terror” has been nothing but bad theatre. The troops on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan are producing many more martyrs for the terrorists than our troops are killing or locking up. The Department of Homeland Security has done almost nothing but spy on Americans and make little old ladies take off their shoes in American airports.
Where is the beefed up security at the back of the airport, where we are really vulnerable? Where is the increased security at ports, where we are more vulnerable yet? Where is the close cooperation with international security agencies in this “war?” Where is the information-sharing among internal agencies? None of those things are happening because Little George does not care; all he cares about is holding onto power.
Worse, there does not seem to be a Democrat in the land with enough courage to take him down, despite the obvious and continued nature of his arguably treasonable activities. It’s enough to make a curmudgeon sick to his stomach.