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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dale Baker who wrote (11918)	2/14/2006 10:46:33 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Respond to of 540836

Terrorism was the first specific subject discussed in the 2004 Democratic party platform. Oh come on now. It was in the platform because they had to say something. What they actually said was your classic corporate mission statement, bloated and meaningless: Victory in the war on terror requires a combination of American determination and international cooperation on all fronts. It requires the ability and willingness to direct immediate, effective military action when the capture or destruction of terrorist groups and their leaders is possible; a massive improvement in intelligence gathering and analysis coupled with vigorous law enforcement; a relentless effort to shut down the flow of terrorist funds; a global effort to prevent failed or failing states that can become sanctuaries for terrorists; a sustained effort to deny terrorists any more recruits by conducting effective public diplomacy; and a sustained political and economic effort to improve education, work for peace, support democracy and extend hope. The devil is in the details. Just how do you effectively conduct public diplomacy with an Arab world that is used to blaming "the West" or "Israel" for all their problems, everyone but themselves? How do you implement "a massive improvement in intelligence gathering and analysis" if you're going to have the vapors every time the NSA does data mining? How do you "prevent failed or failing states that can become sanctuaries for terrorists" when the UN is clearly hopeless at the job and you won't talk about using the military to build a SysAdmin force? And so on and so forth. That platform went well with Kerry's approach: "I have a plan," he repeated endlessly. We never got to hear specifics, as he quickly changed the subject to his service in Vietnam (did you hear that Kerry served in Vietnam?) or to the Democratic domestic agenda. The Democratic candidates and pundits do not like to talk about terrorism because they have only platitudes, and programs that have failed in the past. Law inforcement does NOT work against a terrorist network. Any case you bring to trial will blow the cover on your on-going surveillance, as well as putting the lives of your judges and lawyers at risk.