Things Never Seem to be dull in the land of news!
Well folks it seems that past few days have been rich with real news. By that I mean stories about things that have real world impact. Not Michael Jackson. Although I would guess that historians will look at all of this from a very different perspective and the Michael Jackson story will likely become part of some larger societal transition that become clear with time and distance.
What I am talking about is the fact that we have a Supreme Court justice announcing retirement as well as now another major terrorist attack. This time on London. As a person who has lived in London I must say that it brings back memories of my time in that city. The attackers then were the IRA and they approached things from a more civilized perspective as, if memory serves me right they always announced or gave some warning of an attack, terrorism could ever be called civilized. All of this challenges the way you look at the world and its controlling orders. Was London attacked because of the G8 summit or because they are allied with the US in our war on Iraq? Was it a warning that it will come again during the Olympics? The problem with terror attacks is that, by design, the attackers have no physical presence. They are not a nation state or organized army. They can lay low or be completely silent like a never fired gun. Dormant terrorists in theory may never attack in fact or be traceable by any terrorist organization. They might simply wait until some coded message is sent via any form of arcane communication.
It is my real concern that we in the US have been duped into believing that we are making progress against our attackers. That while we are busy fighting this war in Iraq the real enemy is slowly carefully moving their chess pieces into place. I do think that our president honestly thinks he is fighting evil. But by sending in our army, by expending massive amounts of human and financial resources we unfortunately might be getting drawn further and further into the terrorist form of an ant trap. The more we work the further down we go. I wonder what if we had not expended all this energy attacking Iraq? How much stronger our nation would be if we had remained calm and saved our energy for a more calculated, more strategic attack in the future. How much stronger might we be today if we just left Iraq go its own way. Might we have gotten some other country to do our dirty work? No doubt that Saddam was an evil deranged misguided leader. One that brought this on his own people and was able to convince at least some that he had weapons that we now know he did not. I fully understand how good it can feel to burn pent up anger through bold flat out revenge. But I wonder after the initial feeling of good are we now not stuck in an even bigger, longer quagmire? I am not calling for our leaders to present a timeline for pull out. We must finish correctly what we started. I am in complete agreement that timelines would be bad strategy. But I do think that some clear definitions of win, loose or draw need to be put down so that we have a way of judging. Who among us can order dinner without asking at what price? A hamburger for a couple of bucks seems like a good deal. A hamburger for twenty bucks doesn't and a hamburger for a hundred bucks feels like a screw job. The Iraq war for the original stated price tag in terms of time, money and most importantly human life was much more tolerable. But what if the price in terms of life, time and money rises one fold or more, is it tolerable and worth it then? To not begin establishing this context is pure folly. Anyone have any thoughts? We have the best army in the world. The most dedicated solders. It would be a true shame if they had been sent to chase mirages in the desert while the enemy put the real attack into place waiting for a time of weakness on our part.
What I am talking about is the fact that we have a Supreme Court justice announcing retirement as well as now another major terrorist attack. This time on London. As a person who has lived in London I must say that it brings back memories of my time in that city. The attackers then were the IRA and they approached things from a more civilized perspective as, if memory serves me right they always announced or gave some warning of an attack, terrorism could ever be called civilized. All of this challenges the way you look at the world and its controlling orders. Was London attacked because of the G8 summit or because they are allied with the US in our war on Iraq? Was it a warning that it will come again during the Olympics? The problem with terror attacks is that, by design, the attackers have no physical presence. They are not a nation state or organized army. They can lay low or be completely silent like a never fired gun. Dormant terrorists in theory may never attack in fact or be traceable by any terrorist organization. They might simply wait until some coded message is sent via any form of arcane communication.
It is my real concern that we in the US have been duped into believing that we are making progress against our attackers. That while we are busy fighting this war in Iraq the real enemy is slowly carefully moving their chess pieces into place. I do think that our president honestly thinks he is fighting evil. But by sending in our army, by expending massive amounts of human and financial resources we unfortunately might be getting drawn further and further into the terrorist form of an ant trap. The more we work the further down we go. I wonder what if we had not expended all this energy attacking Iraq? How much stronger our nation would be if we had remained calm and saved our energy for a more calculated, more strategic attack in the future. How much stronger might we be today if we just left Iraq go its own way. Might we have gotten some other country to do our dirty work? No doubt that Saddam was an evil deranged misguided leader. One that brought this on his own people and was able to convince at least some that he had weapons that we now know he did not. I fully understand how good it can feel to burn pent up anger through bold flat out revenge. But I wonder after the initial feeling of good are we now not stuck in an even bigger, longer quagmire? I am not calling for our leaders to present a timeline for pull out. We must finish correctly what we started. I am in complete agreement that timelines would be bad strategy. But I do think that some clear definitions of win, loose or draw need to be put down so that we have a way of judging. Who among us can order dinner without asking at what price? A hamburger for a couple of bucks seems like a good deal. A hamburger for twenty bucks doesn't and a hamburger for a hundred bucks feels like a screw job. The Iraq war for the original stated price tag in terms of time, money and most importantly human life was much more tolerable. But what if the price in terms of life, time and money rises one fold or more, is it tolerable and worth it then? To not begin establishing this context is pure folly. Anyone have any thoughts? We have the best army in the world. The most dedicated solders. It would be a true shame if they had been sent to chase mirages in the desert while the enemy put the real attack into place waiting for a time of weakness on our part.
posted by Ronald M. Reim AIA at 3:53 PM
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