Terrorism

Kevin Drum, at his new Washington Monthly home, posts on the subject what Bush is really doing on the "War" on Terrorism. He argues, correctly I will add, the Kerry would be doing the same thing and the Bush is not really doing that much anyway that would earn him a gold star for effort. In fact, I think Bush is playing the chest thumping game and not getting down to business.

Rob Bernard posted recently declaring the Spain bombings the "biggest terrorist win yet," on which I disagree. The efforts of the Spanish police have cracked the case quite quickly. Good old police work is getting justice and hopefully crushing the cell of terrorists responsible for the death of 200 people. How is this failure? I know Rob is going to go on about "appeasement," we know those are the talking points for Bush supporters. I have to ask, how is this appeasement? Who is being appeased? The people who did this are either in custody, or they are close to it. What Rob is doing is trumping up Al Qaeda into something it isn't and never was: a unified and cohesive organization. These guys are terrorists. They are not going to act or not act based on whether the government changes in Spain. 9/11 would have happened if Gore was President too.

Spain getting out of Iraq is not going to harm anyone, except Bush's political aims and the U. S. Military. The Military will be harmed by having to pick up the slack because Bush has failed to get more troops from around the world.

This whole discuss is tainted by a simple disagreement that Kevin Drum brings up: War vs. Police Action. Bush wants War and wants to use the rhetoric without the real strings attached. Those strings are the horror of body bags, blood, and missing limbs. Police Action is what in reality the response to terror has been and should be. We are not "at war" with anyone. Using the "war" term used to be a taboo for political leaders because the concept of war meant something. Now it is just a political prop akin to "compassionate conservative" or "faith based initiatives."

Terrorism should be stamped out, but pumping up what you are doing about it for political gains is silly. Let a police action be a police action, and keep the blood lust out of it. Bush is doing nothing that any other President would do, except maybe cuddle up to a cleaned up military despot, namely the "President" of Pakistan.