terrorism is a technique, not an enemy state

[pippin]

The War that Cannot be Won
Jonathan Steele
Saturday November 22, 2003
http://www.guardian.co.uk/alqaida/story/0,12469,1090844,00.html


"The bombast has increased with the bombs. We saw two disturbing escalations this week. The explosions that devastated the British consulate and the HSBC bank in Istanbul mark a significant widening in the choice of targets by those Islamist radicals who use terror to express their hatred of British and US policy in Iraq and the Middle East. The Blair/Bush response reached an equally alarming new level of ferocity.

At their swaggering joint press conference on Thursday, the two men repeatedly made the risible claim that they could win their war on terror. . . Terrorism is a technique. It is not an ideology or a political philosophy, let alone an enemy state. Our leaders' failure to understand that point emerged immediately after September 11 2001 when they reacted to the attacks in New York and Washington by confusing the hunt for the perpetrators with the Afghan "state" that allegedly "harboured" them. . .the "war" on terror should have remained what it initially was, a metaphor like the "war" on drugs. But instead of being harmless linguistic exaggeration to describe a broad campaign encompassing a range of political, economic and police counter-measures, it was narrowed down to real war and nothing else. "

[pinkpops]

1. Yes,

and you would think that educated people, particularly federal judges who defer to the power of the executive in times of "war" should be able to grasp the concept. Could it be the judiciary has become politicized?

[Paschall]

2. Excellent read

I concur totally!!