The Nuisance Of Terrorism

[theknife]

every now and then, a moment of sheer lucidity accidentally slips into the campaign, on the part of one or the other candidate, on the subject of terrorism...

Bush had just such a moment a while back, in a television interview, when he said of the war on terrorism: "i don't think you can win it." he was right, for once - we can contain it, discourage it, minimize it, prosecute it, but we'll never eradicate it.

of course, the Dems pounced on that comment, Bush backpedalled and we all went back to which candidate can do a better Clint Eastwood impression...

Kerry had a similar moment this weekend, resulting in today's gotcha soundbite:

...a comment Kerry made in an interview with The New York Times Magazine on Sunday that the nation has ``to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives but they're a nuisance.''

Kerry suggested that terrorism, like prostitution, illegal gambling and organized crime, will never be eradicated but can be reduced so ``it's not threatening the fabric of your life.''

Kerry is right, as Bush was. the war on terrorism is never gonna be "won" - no matter how many countries we invade, no matter how many troops we deploy, no matter how much we tinker with the Constitution. we're the biggest, richest, juiciest target in the world and for every disenfranchised, disaffected, disgruntled misfit in the world who can get his hands on an RPG or a sack of ammonium nitrate, it's open season on the USA and always will be. the best we will ever be able to do is to secure our borders and entry points, go after terrorists wherever we know them to be, work the diplomatic angles vis a vis situations like the Israeli/Palestinian conlfict, continue to upgrade our intelligence capabililties....and be prepared to take the occasional hit.

so, it's a shame the discourse in this election is so far gone that neither candidate can risk telling the truth - or is the US electorate just too simple-minded to handle it?