I had two things in mind when I said that: first, the Iraq war is not done yet, and I think we should have waited to declare victory. Second, compared to what has to be done, it may not seem like it was so difficult, and yet we seem to be resting on our laurels. With Korea and Pakistan, there are real nuclear threats to manage. We may have to accept a great deal of risk to eliminate our enemies. I think Americans were prepared for that in the spring of 2003, but our focus has been diminished by the PR campaign.
Give the Prez credit on the fact that he is looking at the situation now and not historically, and using what he can of Pakistan's help. It's a balancing act, to not turn them agains tus and thereby turn Pakistan into a nuclear-armed safe haven for terrorists . . .
I've been saying exactly the same thing for two years. It's now almost 9/11/2003. I'm still waiting to see the promises of crossing any border, crushing any and all terrorists, and making their protectors pay. The roadmap is a complete farce in that respect. It's been a waste of precious Israeli life, and a humiliation for all of us. Those responsible for it in this administration must be asked to resign, or else we have to ask what other doubts we should be having?
A long fight.
That's what we said at the beginning of the Cold War. It's what CFR (Council for Foreign Relations) told us about the Soviet union in the middle of the Vietnam war. It's what Carter believed. And after defeating the Soviet union and soundly trouncing Iraq, Clinton was afraid to challenge North Korea. Reagan proved that we could win the Cold War if we had faith, and were willing to sacrifice. And we could win it in a decade, not a series of lifetimes. Can't we also do better now? All of America, centrist Democrats, conservative Democrats, Republicans, and many Libertarians are behind a sweep to victory. Why haven't we used that consensus to really take this war to a level that corresponds to the 9/11 attacks? I sense a timidity on the part of the administration: keep the casualty count down, restrain the military, appease the home front that appears devided due to the cacaphony on the far left. Meanwhile the Taliban regroups, the Iranians fashion their bombs, and Pakistan loses moderate political control, or maybe never had it. We can do better. I just want GW to know that we actually expect it. He has our support because we believed he would do what he said. I'm waiting.