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Sunday, October 22, 2006

Fighting them where?

Some people still support the war because they say we need to fight them "there" (in Iraq), so we don't have to fight them here. I just saw a Mark Kennedy TV ad pretty much saying the same thing. I don't get it, I really don't.

A poor 20-year old kid with an AK-47 and nothing else attacking soldiers in Iraq was never a threat to the U.S. mainland. He has no support structure. He has little, if any training. The U.S. brought the targets to him, and as a result he is taking advantage of it. If there were no U.S. soldiers in easy reach to attack, he would just sit there fuming, or more likely wouldn't do much at all.

Similarly, people like the 9/11 terrorists with training and money aren't those 20-year old kids. They probably aren't taking potshots at our troops. They may be taking advantage of the Iraq war by using it for training, learning how to use shaped charges and plant IEDs, for example, but for the most part I bet they are not getting heavily involved with the war in Iraq. They are doing the same things they would be doing even if we weren't in Iraq.

There is no fixed pool of terrorists. By going into Iraq, we have created many more fighters were there wouldn't have been before. At the same time, we are in no way helping to fight those sleeper cells that are plotting the next terrorist attack from somewhere other than Iraq.

When Mark Kennedy says that we need to fight them there so we don't fight them here, he is either completely ignorant about the world, or lying. Take your pick.

1 Comments:

At 6:45 PM, October 22, 2006, Anonymous Anonymous said...

October 25, 2004, KSTP Debate.

[...]

KENNEDY: ...I think what we need to do to be successful is to be consistent. We have to have a consistent commitment to making sure we are going to win this war on terrorism, and that includes making sure you have a stable government. I met with Zarqawi when I went there last August. I found that he had a lot of respect from the people in Iraq as well as the countries around him. The government there today is in far better shape, far more stable, far better developed than it was when I was there a year ago, the August before.

[...]

HAUSER: Before we get to the next question, I want to clarify something. You didn’t meet with Zarqawi, the terrorist…

KENNEDY: Allawi.

HAUSER: The interim leader.

KENNEDY: And I appreciate you allowing me to clarify that. I wish I had met with Zarqawi, and bring him greetings from everybody over here.

HAUSER: I thought a major news story had broken out right here in the studio, but I wanted to clarify. The names can get confusing.

KENNEDY: Allawi.

[...]

I don't know how you can question Kennedy's credentials as a serious foreign policy thinking guy.

 

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