Not a War You Can Win
Here's my column today in the Providence Journal, suggesting that the so-called war on terror cannot be won.
It's a volatile argument, surely one that will be misunderstood by hawks and jingoists who resent nuance. For the most part, hawkish personalities in any society will latch on to reasons to condemn voices of reason as treasonous.
Yet those same hawks, as ostensibly small-government people, will laugh at the notion that you can win a war on drugs or a war on poverty. They claim that they are not pro-drugs and pro-poverty while making that case, and I hope they could see that the same applies when I say that you can't tangibly and permanently win a war on "terror" or on any other emotion or mood. (It doesn't help that our own definition of terror shifts every few years, depending on whether "freedom fighters" are fighting us or our rivals...)
Great article Rob (Which is a coded message that I agree with your analysis).
Cheers!
Jonathan
We can win! Yes we McCain! It will not be easy because
our hands are tied, but we must win,our very exsistance
as free people depends on us winning. This is not a
convential war, the rules have changed, we must be as brutal as they are. Remember 9/11? "Sir you are wrong!"
Once again you are wrong,the war on terror is a war we must win. We need to be as brutal as they are and fight
fire with fire.