All the more reason to pick our battles more carefully.
I understand that this hasn't been so over the last decade. Things went more than a little haywire in the wake of 9/11. Really, it was worse than Pearl Harbor because most of the victims had been every day average janes and joes, gearing up for another daily grind in the office. And PH had incensed our nation to the point where Congress saw no need to enact the draft. For me, it comes as no surprise our nation, very nearly as a whole, went out for blood in the short years after 9/11.
I only wish that it had been with a much steadier hand on the tiller.
Regardless, though, we're trying to get ourselves out of the morass, but it's like being stuck up to our knees in thick, sucking mud. That mud being the politics engendered by this Administration's dealings with Al Qaeda.
As much as I have supported Obama in the past, this is simply beyond me. I can understand the short-term goals, but it's going to hurt us in the long run. Just wait and see - before long we'll have a resurgence in piracy, much like the Somali Pirates... only these people will be Al Qaeda affiliated and trained, which means they're dangerous and fanatical. And it won't stop at getting their brethren freed from Guantanamo. They will begin demanding concessions. Rights. Territories. Etcetera.
We're already starting to see signs of this with Boko Haram. 200 girls kidnapped, hidden away, and held for ransom. (And given how Islamic Extremists view women as essentially nothing more than livestock, I shudder at the though of how those girls are being treated.) How long until this sort of thing happens with US Citizens being kidnapped in broad daylight, on American soil no less, and dragged off someplace unseen?
I can only hope that we will not continue down the road of appeasement. The only people we need to worry about appeasing are the Chinese, and even then only in the sense that we're getting our heads out of our asses and working towards an even and cooperative footing with them.
PS: I think Paveways and Hellfires are a little overkill. Why the hell haven't they fitted a Predator Drone out with a remote operated gyro-stabilized sniper rifle? Not only does it deliver a far more succinct message, but the camera resolution that would require will go a long ways to preventing things like grandmothers with children being targeted by mistake.
I understand that this hasn't been so over the last decade. Things went more than a little haywire in the wake of 9/11. Really, it was worse than Pearl Harbor because most of the victims had been every day average janes and joes, gearing up for another daily grind in the office. And PH had incensed our nation to the point where Congress saw no need to enact the draft. For me, it comes as no surprise our nation, very nearly as a whole, went out for blood in the short years after 9/11.
I only wish that it had been with a much steadier hand on the tiller.
Regardless, though, we're trying to get ourselves out of the morass, but it's like being stuck up to our knees in thick, sucking mud. That mud being the politics engendered by this Administration's dealings with Al Qaeda.
As much as I have supported Obama in the past, this is simply beyond me. I can understand the short-term goals, but it's going to hurt us in the long run. Just wait and see - before long we'll have a resurgence in piracy, much like the Somali Pirates... only these people will be Al Qaeda affiliated and trained, which means they're dangerous and fanatical. And it won't stop at getting their brethren freed from Guantanamo. They will begin demanding concessions. Rights. Territories. Etcetera.
We're already starting to see signs of this with Boko Haram. 200 girls kidnapped, hidden away, and held for ransom. (And given how Islamic Extremists view women as essentially nothing more than livestock, I shudder at the though of how those girls are being treated.) How long until this sort of thing happens with US Citizens being kidnapped in broad daylight, on American soil no less, and dragged off someplace unseen?
I can only hope that we will not continue down the road of appeasement. The only people we need to worry about appeasing are the Chinese, and even then only in the sense that we're getting our heads out of our asses and working towards an even and cooperative footing with them.
PS: I think Paveways and Hellfires are a little overkill. Why the hell haven't they fitted a Predator Drone out with a remote operated gyro-stabilized sniper rifle? Not only does it deliver a far more succinct message, but the camera resolution that would require will go a long ways to preventing things like grandmothers with children being targeted by mistake.