I imagine it's increasingly difficult for Republican strategists to exploit the war on terror for political gain. On the one hand, past elections demonstrate the potential for Republican success from a fearful electorate and a focus on national security (and/or foreign policy). On the other, how long can you continue to say that your party is making gains in a war if you can never say you've won it? Apparently somebody decided to solve the problem: just say we're safer . . . but not safe. The interesting thing about a word like "safe" is that you can always keep moving towards it without ever getting there. Hooray for Republican electoral prospects! The only problem would be if Americans got wise to the act.
[O]pinion polls suggest an increasingly skeptical public. In a CNN poll conducted Aug. 18-20, 52% of Americans said the war in Iraq distracts from fighting terrorists.Uh oh . . . that's not going to be good for the meme that Democrats are soft on terror. So, what's scarier than terror by itself? Something that might distract people from the massive strategic mistake of Iraq? Ooh, ooh, I know: Hitler!
Bush said that ignoring the words of the terrorists themselves -- as the world once ignored the words of Lenin and Hitler -- risks underestimating their intent.Didn't Hitler, like, try to take over a big part of the world? I bet those crazy terrorists, who don't control a single tank or fighter jet or destroyer let alone the state apparatus to establish governance, have talked big, too, just like Hitler did. But of course, no sane individual could possibly imply that the capabilities are in any way similar, right? Surely no one would be so spiteful, so malevolent, so intellectually dishonest, as to imply that terrorists have any chance of taking and holding territory, just to defend a set of failing policies?
President Bush, quoting from terrorist documents captured in Afghanistan, Iraq and Britain, said today that Al Qaeda and its allies were intent on global domination and creating a "radical Islamic empire" that stretches from Spain to Iraq.I will now light myself on fire.
