This morning I was watching a combination of MSNBC and CNBC (the hotel I am staying in doesnt get CNN, and I refuse to watch Fox News). I realized that there is a lot of rhetoric being shoved about regarding the 'War on Terror'. Now, last time I checked, Terror is a somewhat abstract concept, at least if you are going to try and war on it. It's not like warring against a nation, or a group of people, its basically an idea.
I am somewhat reminded of the last Republican sponsered war on an abstract, you might have heard of it, the 'War on Drugs'. Anyone recall how that one turned out? As one of the great political pundits of modern time once said (and bonus points if you know who, free cookie, etc) 'There is a war on drugs going on, and the people on drugs are winning it'. If you can't beat a bunch of junkies and potheads (Note: no implication that doing drugs makes you a bad person or a junkie. Drugs can be all good and fine, depends on who you are and your situation) what hope do you have against well armed, well funded, fanatically devoted terrorists?
I was checking out Bill Maher's new show last night on HBO, and he said something that made me think. He said 'Killing Osama bin Laden will have the same effect on terrorism that Ray Kroc dying had on McDonalds. The franchises are already out there. You don't need him to sell any more hamburgers.'
Winning a guerrilla war is very difficult. Winning a guerrilla war on foreign soil is even more difficult. And winning a guerrilla war against people we trained to fight it, on foreign soil, with masses of fanatical troops is a total lost cause. Why bother fighting it?
And if we are going to start fighting wars on abstract concepts, how about we start with the important ones, like say, the War on Poverty, or the War on Hunger. Lets spend 200 billion dollars feeding people instead of shooting them. I know that sounds all left liberal tree hugger granola eating hippie, but it is just true. Why waste all this money killing people when you could spend even part of it feeding people?
So, remember. On Nov 2nd, a vote for George Bush is a vote for baby killing and seal clubbing. And everyone likes cute babys and seals.
Posted by tberman at September 8, 2004 05:03 PM