How NOT to win a “war on terror”
Terrorism is increasing, not decreasing, as witness the hotel bombing in Baghdad Wednesday. The US is losing friends and potential allies everywhere – all thanks to the idiot schemes of George Bush. Some say, “he’s a leader!”, to which I respond – “he’s leading us off a cliff.”
Bush acts like he is competent. He thinks he is competent. But he is neither. He’s destroyed whatever residual goodwill others had towards the US, and has failed completely at stopping terrorism. Leaders inspire people to follow, leaders get stuff done, the precise opposite of what Bush is “accomplishing.”
Osama bin Laden is more popular than George W. Bush in Pakistan, Jordan and Morocco, according to a new poll of foreign attitudes toward the United States.
The finding is contained in a nine-country poll released yesterday by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, which found that extreme anti-American sentiment is spreading across Europe and the Muslim world a year after the invasion of Iraq.
When else has a US President failed so miserably that he alienated Europe? And to what end? His invasion of Iraq is blowing up in his face and the terrorism he claims to be fighting has not abated, in fact there is more of it, not less.
PoliZeros readers comment on Spain and terrorism:
From DJ Mitchell –
“Fighting terrorism with bombs, with operations of ‘shock and awe’, with missiles, that does not combat terrorism it only generates more radicalism. The way to fight terrorism is with the rule of law, with international legislation, with intelligence services. This is what the international community should be talking about.” –Incoming Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero
BTW, Bush has called outgoing Spanish PM Aznar a “hero” because, against the will of the Spanish people, he supported the invasion of Iraq and also sent troops. Regardless of one’s position on the war, a leader who goes against the will of his people is not a democratic leader!
From Joe –
I have just finished watching the right-wing media (all that’s available outside PBS) bewail how the Spanish are encouraging terrorism by wanting to withdraw from Iraq. They all try to conflate this to withdrawal from the war against terrorism.
Given that the Spanish have been remarkably efficient against Al Qaeda, I originally wrote this off as yet more proof that Americans know nothing about the world beyond the US borders. After considering the problem for a moment, it occurred to me that they Bushies are asking the wrong question. They ask: “will this encourage Al Qaeda to bomb other countries close to their elections”?
The better question, one that alas requires some subtlety and nuance (and therefore off-limits according to Dubya himself) would be “Would the bombings have had any effect on the war on terror had the US listened to its European allies and stayed out of Iraq?”
Instead of having an outcome that could be galvanizing the Western world against Islamic fascism, we have blurred the focus through our own inept, unplanned, and underconsidered policies.
Ironically, we want the Iraqis to experience democracy, but get grumpy when a Western electorate tells its government that it’s pissed off at being ignored on big decisions of war and peace (polls showed 90% of the Spanish voting population opposed to the Iraqi advenutre). It’s only a democracy, I guess, if the rest of the world agrees with us.
“It’s nice to be feared by your enemies, but it’s not nice to be feared by your friends”, Madeleine Albright, former US secretary of state
Because then, of course, you no longer have any friends left.