Posted on 12/17/2011 1:26:33 PM PST by BCrago66
What kind of war is the war on terrorism? Ordinarily wars are fought against proper nouns—against Germany during the Second World War or against the Soviet Union during the cold war, for example. Now we're being asked to fight a war against a common noun, terrorism. Just how accurate and useful is the phrase "war on terrorism"? Is this a war? And who exactly is the enemy—Al Qaeda? Al Qaeda plus all other terrorists around the world? Al Qaeda plus all other terrorists plus all the countries in which the terrorists operate? In other words, just how good a job are the president and the administration doing, not just in prosecuting the war but in defining the objectives?
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
It’s called: “The War on Terrorists”.
I don’t want to brutally kill terrorism, I want to brutally kill terrorists.
Wouldn’t be the first war on a noun. War on poverty. War on drugs.
I always thought it was called the war on terror. Or the war on terrorism. Both are nouns.
The noted late atheist and Newt Gingrich — talk about an odd couple
If there’s a “war on terrorism,” I suggest we intern Billy Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn at Guantanamo for the duration.
The war on fascism. The war on communism.
The clip was after 9-11 and before the invasion of Iraq.
At the time, there were two urgent problems: (1) responding to the 9-11 attack, and (2) dealing with nuclear proliferation.
In terms of responding to the 9-11 attack, we had every right to do whatever we decided to do with Afghanistan.
As it is, we used non-conventional ground forces, in conjunction with partisan armies, supported by air forces, to take out the government in Kabul, and installed a government of our choosing.
Some years after that, the mission in Afghanistan changed into nation-building.
We accomplished the first thing very quickly, and the we are coming to the point of accepting that we will not be any more effective in that country than we were in Iraq.
In terms of nuclear proliferation, we invaded Iraq. In that invasion, we discovered that Iraq’s nuclear weapons program, to the extent they once had one, was mostly propaganda.
The invasion part was relatively inexpensive, Then we set out to reconstruct the place. This turned out to be very costly, but it was possible. And, in the end, “our” success depends on Iraq.
Two very brilliant minds. Interesting video.
Haven’t won any wars against nouns have we?
There might be a lesson in there somewhere.
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