Decius wrote:

k wrote:
I also get that telling people "Don't be afraid." isn't a tack the government can take easily; it's up to individuals to realize that their own fear is the actual problem.

I don't agree.

In World War II we faced threats to our way of life that far surpassed what we see today, and the attitude of politicians at the time was defiant and strong. This sort of leadership contributed to a society that was not afraid and was ready to do what they could to contribute.

Our present approach is pathetic. Buearucrats covering their assess by unleashing the wolves on the general public evertime a pin drops. A terror alert system informing the people of the government's best prediction of when they are going to die, something they can do absolutely nothing about. These forces contribute to the pressures on the people, already loaded with our service men and women being in harms way overseas for long periods of time, and by the occaisonal successful terror attack. The pressure pushes them closer and closer to the point where they'll yearn to fix the problem quickly and easily by letting the nukes go.

Meanwhile our myopic leadership picks away at every legal institution, both international, and domestic, that keeps our society from flying apart at the seams. The people who established the Geneva Conventions, the United Nations, the Separation of Powers, and the Fourth Amendment did so because they learned through years of bloodshed that these things are absolutely nessecary. Some might need to be modernized, but to simply cast them away wholesale is suicide.

To make matters worse, it turns out they didn't welcome us into Iraq by throwing flowers at our tanks, and we fired the guys who had accurate cost estimates for that adventure, and Israel just bought Iran's sucker punch lock, stock, and barrell and has thereby emboldened all of the people who seek to kill us.

The only thing I hate more then looking at this situation with dismay is the fact that I'm not convinced the "other team" has a better plan for dealing with it. We have not men fit for the times.

Tha analysis above is good, Decius. But to say "It turns out they didn't welcome us into Iraq" is mildly disingenuous. "It turns out"? Some of us knew all along. As usual the "hawks" got it hideously wrong and as predicted by many "whining liberals" like me, the consequences are dire and only getting worse.

Sadly, I have to add that while the more honest on the right now admit they were wrong (kudos) it's seems still too hard to admit that the lilly livered pinko liberals might just have been right all along. But why choose despair rather than giving the other guy a chance? Who knows, not only were we right all along, but we might even have a better chance of sorting out the mess. Hard to admit, I know, but one step at a time.

Nevertheless, a good analyis, Decius, and a warning to all who think invading Iran might just help sort it out. Beware the fallacy that what we need is even more hawkishness. As some of us have been saying for decades, what we really need is to learn how to make friends of our enemies. Israel and America truly stand as brothers in this regard. And time is running out ....

RE: Stratfor: Al'Q wins in London even though the attack was foiled.