Why can't we see Terrorism for what it is?

This is the best thing I've read yet on why fighting a "War" against Terrorism is an ridiculous. I changed it around a bit and didn't list the title, which is a bit off point IMO. Yes the Dems should get this, but nobody seems to.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/philip-slater/why-do-demo...

Terrorism is not a conflict between nations. It's an international crime problem. An international network can only be destroyed through international cooperation. Terrorists express political grievances through acts of murder. To define them as 'enemy warriors' is to dignify their crimes. But Bush has a 19th century brain. 'International' is a dirty word to him. So he has to define terrorism as war--maybe because he likes dressing up as a soldier better than dressing up as a cop.

Bush is like a dull rat, continually running his old route in a new maze, and winding up in the same dead end.
His approach to terrorism is based on the obsolete nation-state paradigm. Terrorist networks are international. Corporations are international. Laws are increasingly international. National boundaries are becoming meaningless on our shrunken, interdependent planet. Yet the Bush administration is busy putting up fences and pretending that terrorism is a war between nations. We all know this--why don't the Democrats?

War is obsolete. An aircraft carrier won't stop a single terrorist from bombing a mall or releasing poison gas in a subway. Nor will a tank. Nor will a missile, nor a bomber, nor any of the other horrendously costly and often ineffective Pentagon weapons systems. It's like trying to get rid of a cloud of wasps by firing cannons at them. Our entire military budget is devoted to irrelevant preparations.

But the Pentagon is only equipped to fight old-fashioned wars. It is not equipped to cope with terrorism. So the Bush administration came up with the gimmick that there are "rogue" states that "sponsor" terrorism (despite the fact that most terrorists seem to be citizens of our "allies"). Then you make war on these "rogue" states and use all your military toys; and by bombing their cities and killing their children and destroying their infrastructure and looting their culture they won't be motivated to be terrorists anymore, but will become businessmen and open Walmarts.

it will enable a rogue state to take over a nation harboring phantom WMDeeeezzzzz.

At least that's what my Senator, Kay Bailey Hutchison, says when she's through pleasuring orally the local defense contractors.

I couldn't agree more. We are fighting terrorism all wrong.

this is to be expected from mediocre mentality. D.C. is full of it.

Pablo Escobar had Colombia on it's knees. There are a lot of parallels. They used special ops guys to finally get him.

If you want to get rid of mosquitos, dry up the swamp - stop destroying economies of other nations by unfair trade, by using the US military to control markets and resources.

:(

They're CRIMINALS. Period. You don't send an army to chase down a criminal. They're not qualified for the job.

Good article, though.

All the rhetoric being spouted by the Corporate Crime Cabal just covers up the fact that they DON'T HAVE PROOF! But minor things like evidence and facts and truth just aren't supposed to get in the way of these people. They're "special." They're EXACTLY like a lynch mob - getting their jollies from killing anyone in their way. They call it a "war" but haven't the slightest regard for international laws regarding war. They imprison people without trials or charges or evidence based on some bullshit claim of "unlawful combatant" and the most "unlawful" of the combatants are our own military and the "leadership" in the Offal Orifice.

We intentionally supported the rise of Islamism as a way to counter communist influence. Then our creation turned against us because of our support for despotic regimes like Saddam, the House of Saud, Mubarak, etc.; as well as our support for Israel.