Thursday, September 30, 2004

 
As emailed long ago, many of us would love to indulge in Binladenfreude if OBL were captured. Hell, I'd love to personally behead, with a very dull blade, every member of Al Qaida. What Bush has not and probably will not say, is that even if OBL and every member of Al Qaida were killed, they would still have achieved an enormous victory at a trivial cost. Afghanistan was not enough, and will be difficult to hold.(thus far, things aren't too bad there) Air strikes and the use of special ops against Al Qaida, while desirable and while we wish that they go well, are examples of law enforcement, and if not altogether a "distraction" in the war on Islamofascism, while necessary, but far, far, far, far from sufficient.
As argued in emails sent last year(and alas, probably hopelessly lost), we had to make war *somewhere* besides Afghanistan. To some extent the choice of Iraq was made in hopes of getting support from those(foreign and domestic) who are not inclined to support the U.S. in much of anything. If the UN would not support war on Iraq, where *would* it? If Arabs who claim to favor democracy(some of whom put some of the blame for the lack of democracy among them)have not supported our campaign to depose Saddam and set up a democracy in Iraq before getting out of that dangerous country as soon as possible, where would *they* support democracy(as we know it).
Leaving aside Kerry's appeal to cowardice in the electorate, we *did* go to war on Iraq as a "last resort." Iraq was the last country on a list(after Afghanistan)of countries ranked according to desirability of *not* invading or annihilating.