KlutzDio I Wrote:Tom Ridge to country: we are not safer, we are under the highest threat since 9/11.
So which is it? I thought capturing Saddam would make us safer. What happened?
I know, he wasn't a threat to us to begin with!
Unrelated: Oh yeah, on the news today John McCain had some very good criticisms of the corporate welfare system, i.e. Boeing making boo-coodles of money off of the taxpayers!
Why do myself and McCain say this is wrong? Because Boeing is a private corporation!
When the government uses tax dollars to prop up a private business, laissez-faire capitalism does not exist!
Dio, your question, rhetorical as it may have been, discloses what I must call a rather ignorant, inexperienced view of things. Capturing Saddam Hussein is rather on the order of capturing a field marshall. It is significant, will pay great dividends over time, not the least of those being the effect on the enemy's morale, but by no means means the end of the war. No one ever said it would, so far as I can recall. I don't think you get how widespread this effort is. Saddam Hussein's capture (a pity he wasn't killed out of hand) is the capture of one enemy, but he never controlled all of our enemies.
This is not a war that bears much comparison to recent past wars. We are fighting an extremely elusive foe, one that does not have a formal, tightly designed command structure. Our enemies are everywhere and nowhere, across the planet. Get used to this, my friend, because we are in this for the long haul. The die was cast some time ago, and there is no going back now. This war is going to be more like the Thirty Years War, or perhaps the struggles between Christendom and the Moslem world than the past World Wars and Vietnam.
The greatest threat we face is grave injury to our economy. Money is the sinews of war, observed Cicero, and while we are not likely to be beaten on the battlefield, a few well aimed blows at financial centers and large cities in this country, and oil fields elsewhere, could have dismaying economic effects, seeing how our economy is basedmore on "consumer confidence" than actual production. This is a serious risk, given the braying cowardice, immaturity and ignorance of many in this country, who simply do not want to realized that their pipedreams are only those. Gay rights, abortion, anti-smoking initiatives, no development of oil fields in Alaska, and all the pet social projects of the left are simply forms of denial of what is really important now.
