The Fire That May One Day Burn Us All

Terror by eerkman

The War on Terrorism is oxymoronic in that terrorism, a tactic used to incite fear in a general public, is provoking in us a predictable fear response: War. We lose the war by fighting it. This war makes us more vulnerable to terrorism, not less.

So where are we almost five years later? We've lost almost as many U.S. soldiers in Iraq since 2003 as citizens killed on 9/11 and, by some estimates, 20 times that in Iraqi civilian death. OBL is still at large, the Taliban is still causing trouble in Afghanistan, Iran has grown in power and influence, oil prices have climbed, Arab moderates all over the region are sidelined by extremists, and America's standing in the world has greatly diminished--we inspire less fear and less hope in the world.

Can anyone seriously argue that our response to 9/11 has been a net benefit to anyone other than Al Qaida and Iran? We're all glad that Saddam is behind bars, but that by itself does not justify turning Iraq into a proving ground for foreign jihadists and a shooting gallery for sectarian revolutionaries.

We're overdue for new leadership and a new direction. We need less war and more good-faith diplomacy. We need to stop fueling the fire that may one day burn us all.

President Bush said this morning that we can't leave Iraq now because that would cede too much power to the Iranians. Too late, I say. They already have it, and he was the one to give it to them.