Posted on 08/16/2006 7:19:55 AM PDT by presidio9
FIVE weeks have passed since the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers provoked Israel to launch its most unsatisfactory military operation in 58 years. What problem has been solved, or even ameliorated? Hezbollah, often using World War II-vintage rockets, has demonstrated the inadequacy of Israel's policy of unilateral disengagement - from Lebanon, Gaza, much of the West Bank - behind a fence. Hezbollah has willingly suffered (temporary) military diminution in exchange for enormous political enlargement. Hitherto, Hezbollah in Lebanon was a "state within a state." Henceforth, the Lebanese state may be an appendage of Hezbollah. Hezbollah is an army that, having frustrated the regional superpower, suddenly embodies, as no Arab state ever has, Arab valor vindicated in combat with Israel.
The "new Middle East," the "birth pangs" of which we supposedly are witnessing, reflects the region's oldest tradition, the tribalism that preceded nations. The faux and disintegrating nation of Iraq, from which the middle class, the hope of stability, is fleeing, has experienced in these five weeks many more violent deaths than have occurred in Lebanon and Israel. U.S. Gen. George Casey says 60 percent of Iraqis recently killed are victims of Shiite death squads. Some are associated with the Shiite-controlled Interior Ministry, which resembles a terrorist organization.
The London plot against civil aviation confirmed a theme of an illuminating new book, Lawrence Wright's "The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11." The theme is that better law enforcement, which probably could have prevented 9/11, is central to combating terrorism. F-16s are not useful tools against terrorism that issues from places such as Hamburg (where Mohamed Atta lived before dying in
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
This is a clear case of Hairspray Poinsoning!!! It has eaten his brain.
But our law enforcement can't profile, can't arrest illegal immigrants, and the FBI keeps telling us that attacks on the El Al counter at the LAX airport, and students blowing themselves up at football stadiums, and Muslims buying thousands and thousands of Tracfones, has nothing to do with terrorism.
And so, George, your point is?
You can't live in DC for that many years and remain sane.
....so let's get Jamie Corelick to draft up another memo to handcuff law enforcement....so we can have another commission to cover up the political correct, US is way too powerful,self hating,appeasement leaning,suicidal a$$holes who, with the help of the left, is going to be responsible for a few hundred thousand citizens next time.
Doogle
Did those FBI files contain any embarassing info on (formerly) Conservative Beltway columnists?
I used to like will, but he seems completely out-to-lunch these days.
Hmmm very interesting George, but I have one question. If treating terrorism as a crime works so well, then how did 9/11 happen?
The revelation that Hezbollah never truly represented an effective threat to Israel proper, perhaps? The war has answered the question, "What would Iran have Hezbollah do if they had nuclear weapons?"
Israel's war with Hezbollah has made it crystal clear that pre-emptive measures are an imperative in confronting the Iranian nuclear threat, and much more likely that an attack on Iran will come to pass.
Neither Israel nor Hezbollah wins, but Iran surely loses, IMHO.
Yes George Will, everyone sees you, we know you are there; is that enough attention?
Nice way to get attention by breaking plates on the ground like a little babby George.
Will has a point! It is very possible that Kerry was right since he was on both sides of every issue. Naturally one of them had to be right
I just dropped by to say I quit reading this jerk a long time ago.
"Better law enforcement" should have STARTED with the Clinton administration NOT building WALLS between the agencies.
Will has finally succumbed to the basic left wing mental weakness--a belief that if things suck, what America did caused it and if we just stop what we're doing and admit we were wrong, it will get better.
The middle east sucks all on its own. It has sucked for forty years. Islam has sucked for 1,300 years. There's no single solution that will make it tidy. Perhaps the very best we can do is stop it from getting too much worse. Perhaps it will get a lot worse. And perhaps it will get better if we act wisely.
But what Will and Kerry propose is not using one of our tools--military action. They miss that inaction has consequences because the enemy will assuredly use all of its tools--a nuclear armed Iran exporting nuclear terror, for example.
We may get it either way. At least we would try to do something about it using our full toolkit while Will and Kerry wring their hands and talk about law enforcement--what, are we going to arrest the president of Iran for nuking NY?
W is partly guilty of the same thing. He still wants to fight a genteel war. To have everyone like us afterwards. What disturbs me is that the only argument on this issue is between folks who want to fight weak wars and those who want to give up. Meanwhile, we are spending MUCH less of our GDP on the military than we did thirty years ago because noone at the national level has suggested that we need to move it to Cold War levels.
Make no mistake about it. This is an existential struggle. Will has lost heart. That may be symptomatic of the fundamental and irreperable mental weakness of the west. Maybe it's time for us to be replaced by a more vigorous and self-confident culture. If I had my way, I would choose anything but Islam.
George Will is getting senile, confusing better intelligence gathering (eg., eliminating the Gorelick/Clinton "wall") with "better law enforcement". But then, maybe Will just wants to try to give credit to that simple scumbag Kerry where none is due.
George Will, you are an idiot.
Has the President EVER said that law enforcement was unnecessary? Hell no.
Has the President and GOP pushed the Patriot act, NSA electronic surveillance, long term detention and interrogation, offhsore Banking records surveillance; all while the NY Times leaked these "law enforcement" tools as the Democrats, including John F'n Kerry condemned them as well?
And Mr. Will, what were our options in Afghanistan for securing "law enforcement" deals with the Taliban to help stop the Al Qaeda plotting and training?
And Mr. Will, what were our options in Iraq for getting Saddam to quit funding terrorism, to quit supporting AQ schemes against the US, to stop giving terrorists phony passports and safe haven, and to guarantee that the WMDs he MOST CERTAINLY HAD would not end up in Boston Harbor?
And Mr. Will, why do you so bemoan the Israeli's failure to snuff out its enemy, Hezbollah, but you have no praise for our military snuffing out the Taliban and Saddamites?
And Mr. Will, as Iran continues to fund terrorists worldwide and continues on its path towards nuclear weapons, will it still be a strictly "law enforcement" issue?
Mr. Will, can you deal with terror states through law enforcement?
Mr. Will, is there no advantage to having Iraqi and Afghani govt's and their armies, which we are training, go aggressively after the terrorists in their own countries as opposed to the national armies being part and parcel of the terrorist underworld as they were pre 9-11?
And Mr. Will, will there be no advantage for the USA to have allies and bases in Iraq and Afghanistan when the inevitable war with Iran starts?
And Mr. Will, if John Kerry was right about the best way to win the war against the islamo-fascists, why were you too stupid at the time to see it and point out that the world and USA would be better off under a Kerry administration?.
George Will, you are a f****k idiot.
The first swamp can be drained given time... the latter one needs to be set afire first.
Hopefully, Mr. Will will get out of DC for a little vacation time in America. He needs it.
Hand wringing in DC seems to have become a bi-partisan competitive sport.
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