The very notion of a "war" on terrorism is the wrong strategy

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/15429249.htm

U.S. winning battles against terror, but may be losing the war

By Warren P. Strobel and Jonathan S. Landay
McClatchy Newspapers

KABUL, Afghanistan - Five years ago, the United States fired its first shots in the post-Sept. 11 war on terror here in Afghanistan, evicting al-Qaida and toppling the Taliban regime that hosted Osama bin Laden's network.

Today, the United States and its allies are struggling to halt advances by a resurgent Taliban and al-Qaida fighters in large swaths of this still desperately poor and unstable country.

"Things are going very badly," admitted an official with the allied military forces, who asked not to be identified because the issue is so sensitive. "We've arrived at a situation where things are significantly worse than we anticipated."

The trends in Afghanistan appear to mirror the global war on terror a half-decade after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The Bush administration and allied governments have won battle after battle, but appear to be in danger of losing the war.

Indeed, a growing number of analysts, many of them former top government counterterrorism officials, argue that the very notion of a "war" on terrorism is the wrong strategy.

[mike_c]

1. who could have known it would turn out like this...?

(slaps forehead)

:sarcasm:

[unblock]

2. a nice catalog of shrub failures. wrong person leading the wrong war

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. A case of the pnac idiots actually believing their own bullshit.

It's like putting limbaugh rantings into practice, they fail every time.

[keta11]

4. Its amazing how grown, educated politicians

couldn't have seen how this is gonna to end. The very idea of "War on Terror" is plain ridiculous.
Its amazing the buffoons that get elected to be leaders of this great country. You can't go invade Eye-raq and think you are fighting terrorism that way!!!

People are just not crazy like the GOP believes -wake up on a Tuesday and decide to go hijack a plane and kill people and themselves.

In addition to tracing and capturing known terrorists, strong homeland security measures, some effort should be spent analyzing the root causes of terrorism and addressing them.

[whosinpower]

5. The taliban are back....

Because George couldn't stop fantasizing about invading Iraq.
So he did a war in Afghanistan on the cheap.
Hired warlords to do the job for him.
The warlords restarted the opium crops....and now those same crops are funding an increasing insurgency against the allied troops there.

George said he wouldn't abandon Afghanistan.....but then he did just that.
And until Pakistan is taken into account for harbouring Al Quaida and its porous border....then nothing will change.

And now the taliban are back. And they are fighting the allies just as Osama did to the Soviet Union. It worked before......and it is working now because the military option/occupation cannot succeed without a sustainable rebuilding of the country. George doesn't care about that. Afghanistan has no oil.

[PresidentWar]

6. It's like a "war on murder"

PR firms are really going down the shitter these days if this is the best they can come up with.