Shit-Slinging and Assymetric Warfare

Two things seem pretty evident this week; neither the war on terror (which, I like to remind everybody, is a tactic - not an enemy) or the culture war between liberals and conservatives is getting any better. In both cases, things continue to get much worse.

The leaking of a six-month old National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) that concluded we're creating more terrorists than we're getting rid of, the mutiny of U.S. military Generals against Donald Rumsfeld, and current conditions (thousands of sectarian murders) on the ground are irrefutable evidence that, for whatever reason, Iraq is falling apart and we can't seem to make it work. We need a new plan - either win the hearts and minds of everyday Iraqis with overwhelming generosity and goodwill, block by block if need be, or blow those hearts and minds acrosss the desert in a full-on genocide. Anything less than those two extremes will result in a long, painful and expensive quagmire that will cost thousands of American lives, hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars and any credibility we ever had in the world. Most people seem to agree that our current "strategy" (whatever that is) is unrealistic and unsustainable. Anyway, enough of my blather, please read this fascinating articla about Assymetric Warfare on DKosopedia. Conservative or Liberal, I think you'll find it interesting.

And we're more hotly divided in this country than we ever have been in my memory. Its evident in the lack of courtesy and decorum on the the shit-slinging that takes place on so-called "talk" shows and website forums, both liberal and conservative. Nobody seems to be trying to understand the arguments on the other side, most seem content to call the other names. We belittle and dismiss one another reflexively. If there was anything good to come out of 9/11, its that those differences disappeared for a very short while and we all pulled together. Too bad it takes that kind of disaster to remind us we're all on the same team.