Whether it's a war on terrorism or war in Iraq, chaos constantly threatens to win out over attempts to get things under control.
In London, Friday's point-blank shooting by London police of a suspected terrorist became the tragic death of a Brazilian electrician with no ties to any terrorist organizations. While conveying "deepest regrets," Sir Ian Blair, the London police commissioner, acknowledged that "somebody else could be shot."
London police will not take any chances, shooting at the head first and asking questions later (which probably won't lead to many answers). London's previous police commissioner had this to say: "There is only one sure way to stop a suicide bomber determined to fulfill his mission: destroy his brain instantly, utterly."
In Iraq, no one is safe from suspicion, and again, hope you don't get shot before you have a chance to explain.
Incidents like these can't help but give the impression that terrorists are winning. (Not to mention the fact that the London and now Egypt bombings show that Al-Qaeda is alive and well.)
In Iraq, the poor decision to invade and poor strategy once inside have lead to an unforeseen insurgency and the killing of many innocent people, as our soldiers try in vain to determine who is a friend and who is about to blow themselves up. It's not the soldiers' fault; it's the natural consequence of their leaders' recklessness in deciding that the best way to deal with terrorism is to simply start shooting. The end result is that terrorists point to Iraq and say "See, they're just as bad as we said." Terrorist recruiting numbers go up over there while recruiting numbers go down over here.
As for London, terrorist leaders may have egg on their faces for the shoddy results of their copycat bombing attempt on the subways, but the subsequent shooting of an innocent man by shaken police is exactly the type of chaos they hope to generate through terrorism.
In the wake of September 11, no one expected that bottling up terrorism would be easy. But almost 4 years later, a series of one step forward-one step back manuevers have left us at Square One. And another large-scale terrorist attack in the U.S. feels more and more inevitable.