Probably most of you have heard by now of the massive bombing that occurred today in Madrid. Although the Basque separatists ETA were immediately fingered, attention now seems to be shifting towards Al Qaeda and its affiliated ruffians.
To me, this bombing demostrate that a real war is going on, but that it is unlike wars we have seen in the past. Bush made a comment like this immediately following September 11, but he seems to behave as if this is a war that can somehow be won through fighting pitched battles on nation states. The War on Terror is NOT World War II all over, as some commentators tend to think. Wars like those in Iraq and Afghanistan (whatever you may have thought of them) are only the thin end of the wedge. This will be a war that is fought through economic, intellectual, cultural, law enforcement, and, yes, when applicable, military means. But it is not what Bush is selling the American people.
Really, this is an ideological struggle more than anything else. We - and our allies - pose this question to the world. Is Al Qaeda goal of a 8th Century Islamic caliphate really one you want? This is the question that should drive the war on terrorism, subordinate to all else. People should not be fooled into believing that wars like that in Iraq - which was in planning well before September 11, as PNAC's manifesto clearly illustrates - get to the heart of the problem.
Ben P