And Kerry flip-flops?

[gridlore]

Sept. 13 and 16, 2001 FLIP

"There's an old poster out West that says, "Wanted: Dead or Alive." . . . The most important thing is to find Osama bin Laden. It's our Number One priority. We will not rest until we have found him." - George W. Bush

Sept. 25, 2001
“we will smoke them out of their caves” - George W. Bush

March 13, 2002 FLOP

"I truly am not that concerned about him."

"Who knows if he's hiding in some cave or not; we haven't heard from him in a long time."
- George W. Bush

Comments

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

Well, we got Saddm Hussein, who has never directed a terrorist attack on the US. Se, we're safe because we go after targets that aren't a threat to us, in order to intimidate the ones who are. Like how schoolyard bullies go after the smallest, most unpopular target target they can find. That was the thing about Iraq. They were no threat, and everyone hated them. Osama Bin Ladin was a threat, and he has lots of allies. We wanted to intimidate the allies. So we invaded Iraq, with the implicit "you're next if you don't do what we say" message to all of it's neighbors.

There's no understanding of Middle eastern power politics, or the feeling of the average "man on the street" involved in that tactic. It all comes from Washington power politicking, where it works, so long as your opponents are politicians for whom "surrender" means a vote, not a US military presence in your neighbor's country or your country. It fails totally in areas where people can actually be convinced that martyrs are descending from heaven and destroying US tanks with holy weapons. And enough of the people in Iraq actually do think that way, or can be convinced.