Most nat. security experts of all stripes say America losing war on terror

[Roland99]

An article from Cox News Service due to hit the wires on Thursday:

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Most_national_security_experts_of_all_0628.html

The United States is losing its fight against terrorism and the Iraq war is the biggest reason why, more than eight of ten American terrorism and national security experts concluded in a poll released Wednesday.

One participant in the survey, a former CIA official who described himself as a conservative Republican, said the war in Iraq has provided global terrorist groups with a recruiting bonanza, a valuable training ground and a strategic beach head at the crossroads of the oil-rich Persian Gulf and Turkey, the traditional land bridge linking the Middle East to Europe.

"The war in Iraq broke our back in the war on terror," said the former official, Michael Scheuer, the author of "Imperial Hubris," a popular book highly critical of the Bush administration's anti-terrorism efforts. "It has made everything more difficult and the threat more existential."

...

Of the experts queried, 45 identified themselves as liberals, 40 said they were moderates and 31 called themselves conservatives. The pollsters then weighted the responses so that the percentage results reflected one-third participation by each group.

But, but, but, we've turned the corner and last throes and making progress and hard work and all that!

[magellan]

1. All this stuff we knew years ago is suddenly becoming news now

It's so damned frustrating, bearing in mind how many people have died while America ignored the obvious. Never mind that even if we left Iraq tomorrow, the repercussions in increased terrorism will be felt for decades.

One minor puzzlement: wouldn't "more than eight of ten American terrorism and national security experts" be NINE? I think the writer meant to say more than eight IN ten....

[Quantess]

2. that's as many experts as the Dentyne commercial boasts.

Imagine if someone made a zazzy commercial about "8 out of 10 terrorism and national security experts agree, America is losing its war on terror".

What a great idea! Someone please make this commercial!

(Edited to fix my math.)

[Roland99]

6. But the world changed after 9/11.

:eyes:

[Warren DeMontague]

3. Sure- but how much fun would it have been to go after actual terrorists?

We might have even caught them, at which point this rollercoaster would have ground to a premature halt, wouldn't it?

This way, we get to make an infinite, ever-increasing supply of 'em, thus guaranteeing an infinite, ever-increasing series of military budget escalations, no-bid contract bonanzas, and assaults on the civil liberties of US Citizens!

I mean, don't get me wrong- the Cold War was a great gravy train; but one big mistake was actually having a clearly defined enemy that everyone knew where it was. So, when the Soviet Union had the bad taste to fall apart on us in the Early 90s, a lot of Military/Industrial Complex Pooh-bahs were left holding the bag-- and forced to hear unpleasant, screeching noises that sounded something like "peace dividend".


Not with this "long war", nosiree! We'll just keep that nebulous, ill-defined enemy always hiding under the next bed or behind the next sand dune- we'll kill an "Al Zarhimbra" but an "Al-Mustafa Zooboobie" will always be in the on deck circle. And so on.. and so on..

..and whaddaya know... $$$HAPPY DAY$$$ ARE HERE AGAIN!$$$

[leftofthedial]

4. there is no "war" on "terror"

it is an absurdity

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. How do you fight a war against a tac tic?

this is what people must ask

[Roland99]

7. With Diet Coke and Mentos?

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1450915772177922792


;)