Just kidding. If this kinda thing continues next President (Republican OR Democrat), what are we going to do? Most of the world is opposed to these kind of stupid wars, but what can we do if America keeps electing people who continue this stupid path?

I think a lot of the US military forces who are in Iraq could be trained for covert activity, learn the required languages, and might be much more effective operating within our borders (or other countries covertly upon their request) to identify and catch terrorists.

It really bothers me that they’re told by the US government they’re fighting terrorists in Iraq when they’re actually being tossed into the middle of a civil war and losing their limbs and lives for Bush’s folly.

And I agree. It appears that Great Britain, which has publicized the capture of terrorists, used their law enforcement personnel to accomplish that, even if some of the British “accomplishments” turned out to be duds.

And al Qaida is not the only named terrorist group. If you read unpdated information about the Madrid train bombings, several terrorist groups are mentioned as either being complicit or suspected of complicity, though they were trained in al Qaida camps in Afghanistan.

There HAVE been successes in the “war” on “terror”…all of which have been on the law enforcement and security side, and none of which have been on the “Let’s Send An Army To Whomp The Shit Out Another Country Where We Think Terrorists Might Be, or Maybe Not If It’s Iraq” side.

If this were true:

“…..we must defeat al-Qaida”

then Iraq would not have happened. Afghanistan, Western Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia would have.

Actually, the defeat of al Qaida cannot be accomplished by armies and invasions and the warmongering that Bush loves so much. It requires cooperation between civilized nations, pooling of intelligence about terrorist groups, covert infiltrations of cells, identification of individuals, plans, arrests, and trials on the world stage of terrorists caught, maybe at the Hague. Make it very public. Each country can be responsible for catching the terrorists within its own borders and can request undercover help from other countries if needed. Drive the terrorists out of civilized nations into nations that would support and protect them. Then make life very uncomfortable for those nations — refusal of aid, sanctions, etc. Invade if they still won’t cooperate.

If the US was really concerned about terrorism, this is what we’d actually be doing, not waging wars in the world because of the energy crunch.

It must be an amazing feeling to be Iraqi, and to know that the entire future of your country is being decided by a handful of American politicians trying to position themselves for November 2008.

If this were true:

“…..we must defeat al-Qaida”

then Iraq would not have happened. Afghanistan, Western Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia would have.