[pepsionice]

The essay ought to be mandatory reading for any American adult. Dan Simmons writes...what will become of us. The amusing thing here...is in the past week...Caper Weinberger died. Mr. Weinberger had a simple concept which he forced upon the Pentagon and the White House. You either commit to win or you don't do anything. The Clinton administration simply said it wouldn't commit. And the Bush administration simply said it'd commit to a campaign against terror...but really not much more than that. The last time I looked....Ossama was still walking freely and running his organization. We haven't committed to the fight yet...and Dan's essay is driving us to an end result.

Extremists are using every tool of democracy to their favor. They have freedom to travel to any land and preach ill-will against their guest nation. They have the ability to transfer vast sums of money without alot of control. They have western nations freely contributing to their fight by buying oil from corrupt middle-eastern nations. They have liberal free groups and citizens in various countries focusing on the Bush administration as a political tactic...to help bring down the administration. They have the media freely telling their story every night on TV. They have the Red Cross and various organizations condemning Gitmo whenever possible. They have congressmen and senators fighting any form of torture upon their warriors. They have politicians and governments attempting to legitimize the articles of the Geneva Convention upon an extremist group with no government.

Commit to fight...or just sit and wait for your downfall. That is the bottom line of the Time Traveler essay. And I really don't see us standing up and being willing to really fight.

[Windsong]

The last time I looked....Ossama was still walking freely and running his organization.

Good god..its comments like this that make me think FR would be better off via subscription from its members. Since when were you a Ranger? Or on the Green Beret teams? SEALs? When did you see Osama "walking freely"?! Sigh..

[budwiesest]

You either commit to win or you don't do anything.

How about: You either commit to win, or you've already committed to losing?

The lion doesn't care that you failed to make your best effort at an escape, his only concern is an empty stomach.

[TomasUSMC]

Extremists are using every tool of democracy to their favor.

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and We are footing the bill with billions and BLOOD.