I hate to say this, yet I must. In a world where the rule of law has been scorned and squandered, the capture of Osama Bin Laden will be a meaningless symbol.
~~~~ Read on for more ~~~~
"Like Dorothy's ruby slippers, Bush has held the awesome power of the rule of law all the time..and I don't think he ever realized it. I pray this nation finds its way."
I heard G Gordon Liddy on a CSPAN interview this morning. He said something I've lately thought (and written about) myself: Terrorism is a disease that will continue to occur throughout the 21st century. It is a disease in which children who attend fundamentalist-Islamic (Saudi-financed) madrassas have been educated to theologically abhor the decadence of western societies.
Capturing Bin Laden (which we surely will accomplish unless he dies of natural causes first) will be like snaring the one who set the fire whle the forest burns for thousands of sqaure miles ahead.
When the World Trade Center towers fell, the disease metastasized like a near-unstoppable cancer. It was the day the word "civil" was taken out of the idea of war in a new way only before imagined in our nightmares. Like cancer cells, thousands of self-named warriors learned that a new tactic could be employed successfully to beat away at the governments of the western world they have learned to so disdain.
Overall, war has been all-too glorified a word in our look back at history. We tend to forget that war is not always fought on gentleman's terms. Mass-killing savagery in war is nothing new. Bombs are a perfect example of a mass-killers. What is different..what is new about terrorism is that the would-be killers are making civilians of Western societies the targets of their aggression. It isn't going to end with Bin Laden's capture. Make no mistake, we will celebrate it when it happens, but it will be because we will somehow feel avenged for 9-11.
It won't be because the world is saved from terrorism.
What is the answer, then, you may ask of me?
Like you, I have no easy answers. The good and civil people of Spain are sending us a message with the ouster of Prime Minister Asznar. What is the message? Simply, I think it's that people have had enough. They see that we are on the wrong path if we believe we're succeeding at minimizing the ugly force of terrorism. It is horrendously ironic that our warring tactics have inspired those who would employ tactics of delivering the angel of death to the innocents.
What is the anser, then, you continue to ask me?
The only thing that is clear to me is that we need a change in the policy on both Iraq and the war on terror. (Which really have always been two separate issues). If the Bush administration cannot see the error in these policies, perhaps it's time to give another leader a chance to get it right. John Kerry has recently intimated that certain foreign leaders have vocally expressed the hope he will be elected in November. Yesterday on the FOX Sunday show, Colin Powell stated: "He [Kerry] ought to list some names. If he can't list names, then perhaps he should find something else to talk about." Shortly after that statement, the Bush White House ordered both Powell and Donald Rumsfeld to stay out of the U.S. presidential campaign. We need not wonder why. It's obvious..they are two of the most vulnerable to questions about the failed policies of the Bush administration to date.
The old adage "Two wrongs don't make a right" come to mind. War, in and of itself, has the evil component of factionally delivering one man's death at the hands of fellow men. War is ungodly, no matter how necessary or glorious they like to tell us it is. War is never to be taken lightly and should always be the very last of the last resorts. I feel, in my heart, that the dullard-king G.W. Bush has been dabbling at, tinkering with war.....playing God with the people of his nation. The civil world is repelled by his method of curing terror. I think it's high time we turn it all around for the sake of what is best for all of humanity. When our President plays American War-God with those who've been theologically trained to defend their own beliefs against the western world, it is easy to see a war for which there will be no winner...no cure. Where, I ask, is the force of the brightest angels of our human nature? Where have we allowed our leaders to stray?
President Bush and his administration had shown a clear disdain for cooperation with the world community throughout the pre-Iraq war days. Look at everything that has happened since it was clear the international rule of law (the "permission slip", as Bush called it) was to be thrown aside for what appeaered nothing less than unnecessary macho-unilateral aspirations on the part of the U.S. in its march to war. Respect for the U.S. was lost, thus whether we want to admit it or not, we've lost a hell of a lot of "credibility-clout" in the world-at-large.
The capture of Bin Laden will surely happen, but the songs of joy will ring hollow as we see the disease which he caused to spread..the fires he lit...spread thousands and thousands of miles out ahead of him... coming closer to us by the moment.
If we love our own children and the children of this world, it's time to find a real and meaningful way to cooperate with the nations of the world and give the utmost respect to the rule of law.It is the only thing that separates us from the terrorists, you see. For God's sake, let's put an end to this madness....together. Like Dorothy's ruby slippers, Bush has held the awesome the power of the rule of law all the time..and I don't think he ever realized it. I pray this nation finds its way.