There are two kinds of bad people in the world — those who are bad by conviction, and those who are bad by omission.

There are very different ways of dealing with these two groups, and confusing the two has lost us the war on terror.

There are a few thousand bad Islamic terrorists out there, organized and funded to destroy America and civilization itself; they are undeniably real bad guys. And there are hundreds of millions Muslims who allow them to function, by their fear, inaction and lack of understanding. Those are the bad misguided guys.

Nothing will change the first group; they simply have to be found and disabled. The second group is the petri dish in which the terrorist virus grows; they can grow either way.

Current US policy has been ineffective in getting after the first group; they’re still insurgent in Afghanistan. The originators of 9-11 have not been sought or even that seriously pursued; and they never were in Iraq. A terrible mistake, and a great encouragement to the real bad guys.

To deal successfully with the first group, we need to exert focused, deadly and fast military force, guided by ubiquitous technical and human intelligence and by allies everywhere. Able to take anyone out, anywhere in the world. We don’t have that, and nothing Bush has done since 9-11 has gotten us closer to it. Full-scale military invasions do not capture and disable terrorists. Our anti-terrorism forces don’t need tanks and aircraft carriers and B-52s; if we have to resort to old, industrial-style military force, it means we have failed.

Current US policy has not only been ineffective in acting against the second group; we have increased its size, its conviction and the danger they pose. We have fertilized the ground from which Al-Qaeda grows. A generation of new fighters is preparing to swarm over us, terrorize us from within, sap our social cohesion, empower the military right, rot our economic power...and could well achieve its goal, by causing us to destroy ourselves.

Everything Bush does alienates the friendly Muslim world, which has declined from 70% or more favorable to the US before 9-11, to less than 10% today. I have Muslim friends, highly-trained scientists who are US citizens, with kids who once attended Stanford, who have moved back home in disgust and sworn never to come to America again. They would never do anything to deliberately harm America, or to aid extremists; they have friends who died on 9-11 too. On the other hand, they’ve been chased, mocked, spat on, arrested, imprisoned, interrogated, their US lives essentially ruined. Today, in Cairo and Damascus and Kuwait, if they heard about something going on, in the streets or the mosques or the Internet, I’m not sure they would act to warn us.

That’s how we lost the war on terror. So far.

George W. Bush is completely wedded to his losing policies; he cannot change, is not interested in changing. The world will never trust him again.

John Kerry is the only person right now who can createe an opening for change, for a new approach, and for winning the war on terror.

By Jim Fox (cache-ntc-aa03.proxy.aol.com - 198.81.26.8) on Wednesday, March 10, 2004 - 2:55 am: Edit Post

Michael North has it right. If only there were some in the Administration that understood, -- or for those that do, have positions of power.

We could address the "terrorist" problem, in intelligent and effective ways. However, brute force with tens of thousands of "Shock and Awe" bombs raining down on civilians, was totally counter-productive -- unless the real objective had nothing to do with countering "terrorism."

The present Administration, in its symbiotic exploitation of minor, manageable "terrorist" threats, has simply attempted to further it's own self-serving objectives, at the expense of world peace -- and thousands of innocent lives.

In the process, Bush has squandered our wealth, our resources, our good will, our honor, our economic and our military might. We have demonstrated for the rest of the world to see, exactly why some have fear and hatred of unrestrained US power.

Bush's New Crusade was a stupid, counterproductive, self-serving over-reaction, wasting precious US resources. The world is too big for even the US to conquer and dominate, with stupidity. The Bush Regime is dangerous, a disaster; and must be replaced.

By Jim Fox (cache-ntc-aa03.proxy.aol.com - 198.81.26.8) on Wednesday, March 10, 2004 - 2:58 am: Edit Post

Michael North has it right. If only there were some in the Administration that understood, -- or for those that do, have positions of power.

We could address the "terrorist" problem, in intelligent and effective ways. However, brute force with tens of thousands of "Shock and Awe" bombs raining down on civilians, was totally counter-productive -- unless the real objective had nothing to do with countering "terrorism."

The present Administration, in its symbiotic exploitation of minor, manageable "terrorist" threats, has simply attempted to further it's own self-serving objectives, at the expense of world peace -- and thousands of innocent lives.

In the process, Bush has squandered our wealth, our resources, our good will, our honor, our economic and our military might. We have demonstrated for the rest of the world to see, exactly why some have fear and hatred of unrestrained US power.

Bush's New Crusade was a stupid, counterproductive, self-serving over-reaction, wasting precious US resources. The world is too big for even the US to conquer and dominate, with stupidity. The Bush Regime is dangerous, a disaster; and must be replaced.