Jacob,
Victory will come from CorrectAction, which flows from CorrectThinking, which we haven't even begun to do. Right now, we're just acting like a big, successful hammer, that sees nothing but nails.
Nonsense. You are paying too much attention to propaganda and not enough attention to facts. What has actually happened?
1) Defeated the Taliban and disrupted AQ in Afghanistan.
2) Conducted very public year long campaign to convince the UN to clean up a mess in Iraq - enforce the surrender treaty.
Propaganda says "US rushes foolishly and unilateraly to war" but facts says "US moves deliberately, slowly and thoughtfully to build international support for war against Iraq".
Sort the signal from the noise.
The hard part is convincing all those young men memorising the Koran in madrassahs (and polishing their box-cutters), that there is a BetterWay. Do this, and we begin to separate the fish (Al Queda, Hesbollah, etc.) from the ocean they swim in (a billion Muslims).
True. This part cannot be done with armies and bombs. Can't do this part while the Palestinians and Israeli's kill each other with such abandon. Lots of groundwork still to be laid.
In order to defeat the guerrilla army we face, we have got to study things we've ignored up till now, learn to do things we've never been good at. Start by watching all the Bin Laden tapes. Twice. Read the "Quotations of Chairman Mao". Do a lot of public opinion polls in Muslim countries. Analyse General Giap's tactics, that he used to beat us in Vietnam. See the connections.
Read Guns of August. Fight this war not the last war. This is not a Guerilla war. This is a network war. Keep killing nodes, don't fight on their turf, cut off their money.
Paul |
