The politics of despair

cyclop--

You think Bush should be able to stop people from planning things? Will Kerry be able to administer such mind control?

Will a President Kerry be able to eradicate AQ in 4 years? I don't think I'm the one with reality problems.

Well, Bush and our military might have had more luck annhilating AQ if we actually, yaknow, focused our military and diplomatic power on doing so instead of dicking around in Iraq like we have been.

If we can't stop the terrorist from planning and carrying out attacks, then we cannot be said to have made major advances in the war on terror, as you claimed.

If Kerry spends the next four years focusing on AQ, then yes, maybe they can be stopped. There's only one way to find out, and that's to actually focus on stopping them instead of just talking about it and then sending our kids to die in Iraq.

Cycloptichorn

You can do better than that.

No she can't.

It was a guess.

So, who is taking credit for AQ funding woes and arrests?

I might be able to give you a link if I read it, but I didn't, I heard it on NPR. Whether you believe it or not is up to you. If I'm going to lie, it will be for sex, and not something as inconsequential as an anonymous debate.

Move.on is financed by rich political figures and provided a forum for ads that compared Bush to Hitler and alleged he had gone AWOL.

The Swiftboaters are financed by rich political figures and produced tv ads (which I have yet to see in any context other than a news story) that question the legitimacy of Kerry's medals.

Where is there a significant difference?

That Move.on chose the Web as its medium and the Swiftboaters chose TV? That Kerry "quickly" denounced the anti-Bush ad and Bush took a few days?

There is a Texas millionaire helping to finance the Swiftboaters. He's not as well known as Soros because 1) He's not a billionaire, and 2) He doesn't crave attention. Both are up to the same thing: trying to use their fortunes to influence an election in a manner consistent with their political leanings.

Any attempt to try and draw a meaningful distinction between Left wing 527s and Right wing 527s is disingenuous, at best.

Oops - hit the submit button too soon

Not the first time.

What I meant to write in response to Cycloptichorn's quote:

Interestingly enough, it now appears that Bin Laden escaped Tora Bora because the US relied too heavily on its Afghani allies. Hardly what one would would expect from unilateralists. But I guess it goes to show that you just can't trust the bloody wogs. Nothing like that would every happen with a military controlled by Kerry of Vietnam. He knows the difference between our noble allies (France and Germany) and (per D'artagnan) the motley crew of nations like England, Australia, Poland, Japan and Italy. He never would have trusted the damned bandits and bin Laden would now be dead or in prison.

No one can stop terrorists from making plans, not even Kerry of Vietnam, but we can stop them from carrying their plans out, and either the Bush Administration has done just that over the last 3 years or the terrorists have taken pity on us and decided to leave us alone.

The logic that concludes that the rise in worldwide Islamic terrorism since 9/11 is due to the actions of the Bush administration makes the ridiculous assumption that under different circumstances it would have ended after 9/11.

9/11 wasn't part of the natural order of things which Bush has somehow now set out of kilter by invading Iraq. It was the opening shot in an expanded war. The fact that there has not been a followup shot in 3 years is not a matter of luck. From a strategic standpoint there is no place but America where al-Qaida would have wanted to fire the second shot. That they had to settle on places like Bali, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, and Spain tells us that they have not been able to mount anything in the US.

We all know the drill:

Critics of the Bush Administration give it no credit for the absence of attacks on US soil since 9/11, but God forbid one slips through our defenses and they will screaming bloody murder over how it failed to protect us.

Nor the last

Wow, you were johnny on the spot with that one - you're not stalking me are you?

yes, but the reward so far is small

It always is.

Letterman didn't bed the broad he found in his house.

Well, he's no John Ashcroft, that fellow.