but a home-grown one: how does war in Iraq help prevent his flavor of terrorism?
Good question. And it probably doesn't. If anything, our current actions are probably encouraging domestic terrorists.
USS Cole: not U.S. soil.
No, but still an Islamic extremist attack on an American asset.
as for the Marine Barracks in Lebonon
see above
'93 Trade Center bombing: there's one seemingly legitimate case.
Yup.
OK, so there is a pattern of extremist attacks against American assets throughout the world, primarily in the Middle East. The Middle East is where the oil is.
if it were about really defense, the'd do a much better job defending me from the home front, not from halfway around the world.
This could be the crux of the problem, and a central question of the Pax Americana - do we stay on our side of the ocean or not? Our assets wouldn't be attacked if they weren't spread across the world, but isolationism is not the solution either, especially now. If we leave all of our foriegn committments in an effort to increase our domestic protection we have tacitly handed AQ the victory they are fighting for, the removal of the great US-Satan while leaving the rest of the world to try do defend themselves against the extremist threat. If we do that we run the risk of, ten years later, facing an entire Arabian sub-continent in a secular war, not just Iraq. And this war will be taking place on top of the oil. That risk is unacceptable.
there's a huge difference between the service the armed forces provide generally, and the reasons behind this particular deployment.
"We contend, however, that war is nothing more than a continuation of political intercourse with the mixing in of other means."
- Clauswitz
This deployment is an (imperfect) expression of our historic domestic policy. We feel that tyrannical dictators should be overthrown, that people should be able to govern themselves, and that a stable government is a good thing.
And if you won't listen to us, we'll drop bombs on you until you do. Especially if you pump oil.
Is our domestic policy wrong? That is probably what the 2008 election will hinge on.
the war in Iraq isn't preventing terrorism.
No, but it's killing terrorists. Other people, too, sadly.
that's a job for the CIA.
No, the CIA should be trying to put a bullet into Osama bin Laden. If we made that part of our stated policy that could have a huge impact. We said that we would fight any nation that harbored terrorists. Maybe we should just say we're coming after the terrorists, wherever they may be, with any means neccessary. Which sounds kind of like a counter-jihad...
people from Moroco to Malaysia, Southern Russia to Central Africa, are mostly Muslim, and they're mostly in similar enough economic conditions that AQ might well find harbor anywhere in that region.
The brutal truth is what is stopping them is the wreck that we made of Iraq. That is a terrible sign of our strength, determination, and will. That should make people less willing to support AQ. Those could be there houses that were flattened.
This would work if we are vocal about fighting the terrorists. I think we get bogged down in nation-building and that is when we are criticized for tampering with other nations. Probably what we should have done was get Saddam and hand Iraq to the Bath party. But hindsight is always 20/20...
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