Bush's "war on terror" is a miserable failure

[tocqueville]

It is impossible to exaggerate the damage caused by the US president's improvident decisions. Yes, these tactics are immoral. Yes, they violate US norms and values. Yes, they are in many respects illegal. All this, by itself, is enough to warrant condemnation by Congress and the public. But it is the lethal effect of these decisions on America's capacity for success in the "war on terror" that most concerns us here.

By employing tactics that only serve to heighten the destructive consequences of a failing strategy, Bush has in essence guaranteed America's failure. In the final analysis, the president's incompetent management of the "war on terror" has helped the jihadis take better advantage of their strengths while exploiting America's weaknesses. This does not bode well for the future of global peace and stability.

For too long, the American public has accepted the myth of presidential effectiveness in the "war on terror". But as the practical implications of Bush's incompetence become ever more apparent - lamentably, through the continued spread and potency of radical jihadism - this last, crucial prop of the president's support could soon fall away. As 2005 was the year in which Bush's fatal incompetence in domestic affairs was revealed to all through the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans, 2006 could prove to be the year in which his failed leadership in the "war on terror" finally comes back to haunt him.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HA10Ak02.html

Michael T Klare is the professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College and the author, most recently, of Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Dependence on Imported Petroleum (Owl Books) as well as Resource Wars, The New Landscape of Global Conflict.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. Resorting to a war on an idea is at first ludicrous, resorting to war

when your boogeyman has let weapons inspectors in, has cut up missiles, has destroyed his WMD that YOU HELPED HIM GET, is resorting to failure itself. Purposely avoiding diplomacy in favor of shock and awe, is failure squared. Invading a country and killing tens of thousands of civilians, making enemies out of hundreds of thousands of people who you are supposedly trying to "win over" is failure x 10.

Destroying democracy in America is failure to the nth degree. You win on all counts.

War is peace.
Fascism is democracy.
Up is down.



Left is right.... too bad you can't see that through you corporate encrusted eyes.

[tocqueville]

3. it's not only Iraq, it's the whole picture

the article is worth to read. It shows the central mistake in the Bush administration response after 9/11 (if we follow the mainstream timeline) :

the assumption that Al Quaeda was backed by "evil states" and that those states were to be attacked is the central flaw. Even if Afghanistan was more logical (the Taliban regime was merely a training base for Al quaeda) it's doubtful that this operation was necessary, at least the way it was done. Of course Iraq is preposterous.

the article states that the US strategy is doomed to fail - because primarily flawed - and will do nothing else than REINFORCE terrorism. The solutions are elsewhere. But the damage to the whole world is irreparable in the short term, both for the US image and for the safety of its allies.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. I imagine it takes a certain level of IQ to see this for the truth it is..

those of us who knew this several years ago.... must be sharp as a tack. Freepers couldn't accept this even if Karl and gw came out on the wh lawn and read it to them and then said it was the truth.

[jimshoes]

2. Truer words were never spoken

and, lately I am beginning to think that it is by design while the real objective is to subvert the constitution and install a dictatorship in the former USA. All the laws that have passed while bush has been in the WH in no way protect or help the working classes and in fact are designed to eek even more money out of us, hold harmless the megacorps or deprive us of remedies that we once had available.

When the time finally comes and the chimp decides he's the new fuhrer in chief, there will be no redress available as every form of dissent will be treason and you will be disappeared if you say anything against the regime. I fear for this country.