Righties, I know, I know. In war, soldiers die.

And that's even a bigger load of crap than the comparison itself. A war of choice based on lies and American troops stuck for the foreseeable future as the only target that everyone in a civil war can agree upon. Squeamish, my ass. People are revolted by the waste and the stupidity and the incompetence. People are dying right now for nothing.

 

Point taken on the London attacks.

However, the Port Gibson (Miss.) Police Department (Read: Barney Fife) is neither equipped, nor trained well enough to prevent, defend or react to an attack on the local nuke plant. And the problem's not limited to small towns; the vast majority of first responders (police, fire, etc.) across the nation are no better than they were on 9/10/01.

The military, combined with those federal agents and intelligence services, are much more prepared to stop terrorism through the use of highly intelligent weapons systems (drones, laser-guided bombs). Boots on the ground, although in much smaller numbers than we're using now, and human intelligence, coupled with air, naval and unconventional ground assets, can deliver pinpoint attacks and cause people to dissappear. See recent Somalia attacks.

You're right on you're last point, we're not going to win it using our forces the way we're using them in Iraq. But I don't think we're "fighting terrorism" there. IMO, we're struggling with something that resembles more closely a counter insurgency than traditional terrorism, i.e., embassy bombings, hijackings, subway attacks.

 

Fighting terrorism is first and last a matter of criminal investigation. It is won by the computer nerds and the financial drones. Which is why it isn't a "war," and why we should stop calling it that metaphorically. What's happening in Iraq and Afghanistan is war, and it has little or nothing to do with fighting international terrorism except at one step removed.

 

Not to mention he has, gosh, a degree in poli-sci from Maryland. Is that like a degree in basketweaving from Berkeley?

But his dick-swinging post was kinda cute. And he didn't have one sentence in it about Muslims wanting to kill him and his family.

 

Look, we're not talking about Barney Fife preventng a nuclear incident. If it reaches that point the intelligence has been a gross failure.

It's like airport security. It's nice theatre but it has very little to do with security. Stopping an airline hijacking happens long before the minimum wage guy puts your luggage through the XRay machines.

 

The thing is, though, 3bf, even the Barneys know what the hell is happening in their towns. That's where they come in -- knowing what to look for and where to report suspicious behavior or people.

I'm not talking about these local people going Jack Bauer and stopping a terrorist outfit. I'm merely suggesting that they could play a more important role in intelligence gathering and the overall process.

Like Fenian said, tracking the money and infiltrating these groups -- a task that will be handled primarily by the CIA -- is the key. I know firsthand that the CIA is woefully lacking clandestine agents who speak or read Arabic. They just can't find them, and even when they do, they often can't afford to hire them away from the executive-level jobs those people hold at standard companies. That's a problem the billions we're pouring into Iraq could solve immediately.

 

Just finished reading this review of "Power, Faith and Fantasy" a history of America's presence in the Middle East.

http://www.slate.com/id/2157943/nav/tap2/

Much hasn't changed.


When the State Department created its division for Middle Eastern affairs back in 1909, none of the original staff "could speak a Middle Eastern language or produce a contemporary map of the area."

and

Last month, the Iraq Study Group reported that only 33 of 1,000 workers in the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad speak Arabic, just six fluently.

It's kinda hard to gather intelligence when you don't speak the language of the people you're investigating.

 

When guys like Fenian have infiltrated government and have sold our asses out to the point of assuring defeat on a broader scale than Iraq. And of course, they will exclaim "We always hated Christianity in America anyway guys. So just tell us, which way to bend toward Mecca? We're game."

 

http://www.care2.com/channels/solutions/home/9

Lunchtime!

 

Stop talking until you have something useful to say.

 

Did you taste this shit one time and decide it made for good eating? What's your obsession with it?

 

Don't you have a Crusade to get to?