July 08, 2005
War on Terror: Getting Serious
The Bush Administration has often been lambasted for making more political hay than progress in the War on Terror. They grabbed Jose Padilla and trumpeted the fact before he had a chance to do anything or lead them anywhere. They shorted the effort to find Bin Laden to begin building up for the war in Iraq. The Patriot Act has been used more often and effectively against child pornographers than jihadists. Terror alerts have been suspiciously timed with Bush's political misfortunes from the get-go. And perhaps most egregiously, they passed on taking out Abu Musab Zarqawi three times when they had a chance:
Military officials insist their case for attacking Zarqawi’s operation was airtight, but the administration feared destroying the terrorist camp in Iraq could undercut its case for war against Saddam.
This stuff has consequences, people. If we're not serious about solving these problems, they won't just go away on their own. They'll get worse. And we'll keep getting bit, hard.
Posted by ben at July 8, 2005 08:06 AM