Israel assassinated the founder and spiritual leader of Hamas on Sunday. Now the world waits for the retaliation that assures the circle of violence will remain unbroken.
This is what a war on terrorism is really like. Our President and his administration speak and act as if there will be an end to our war on terrorism; Will there be? Can there be? After 9/11, we were told that the war on terrorism would not be a quick or easy one; but it was implied that there would be an end to it. How do we get there? Do we really think that declaring preemptive war on Iraq helped bring such an end closer to reality? Did we create an environment that would turn the hearts and minds of the terrorists? Can we create an environment that could possibly change their minds? How? Endless violence without diplomacy is not the answer, or Israel would be an oasis of peace and security. The U.S. has been a constant supporter of Peace in The Middle East and an advocate of diplomacy over violence. I have yet to see any diplomacy initiated in our efforts to end the war on terrorism. In fact, most people cannot even begin to understand why we are at war. They hate us because of our freedom, is the reason most often given by the administration. Is that it? If so, how the hell do you work out an end to this madness? I don't see any solutions, other than war, being proposed by either Party; and the current administration seems to be hyped up on this whole war president testosterone trip.
I can't begin to fathom the allure of being a war president or the pride of running a presidential campaign on that title. Yes, I want security and safety; everyone does. I also want my children to know a world without constant war; and that looks less likely if our only response to terrorism is to kill the terrorists and invade any country that might be a threat. That does not seem to be a solution... I don't know what the solution is, but it has got to have more than war as its core ingredient. I would like this election to be an honest debate about what we can do to stop the circle of violence that terrorism creates.
I'm listening... Someone give me some ideas that we can share with the candidates.
How do you want this anti-terror campaign to go forward.
More homeland security is a given (but not at the expense of our civil rights).
Less unilateralism.
Is it possible for there to be an anti-terrorism taskforce made up of a coalition of the invested that works with countries that seem to foster terrorists and see if we can work at changing attitudes, beliefs and environments that help to create terrorists.
And in those cases where diplomacy doesn't work, I would like to see anti-terrorist forces jointly trained, manned and maintained by the U.S. and our allies. These forces should be have bases in all participating countries and respond when attacks occur.
Right after 9/11, we seemed to be quite effective in making arrests, freezing assets and working to stop terrorist before they could act. We were working with many countries to accomplish this important work. This all seemed to fall to the wayside as we dumped many of our allies and invaded Iraq. Any chance such cooperation will be restored?
I am talking out of my ass here folks. I am waiting to hear from more informed and intelligent members of the audience. I am also waiting for the ill-informed and less intelligent ones too... feel free to let the venom fly. After all, it is an election year.
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