London, or how things haven't changed in the least

Recently George Bush stated that American troops must defeat terrorists abroad before they attack us at home. I guess it looked good on paper, but Thursday's attacks in London made that statement sound just plain ignorant. Guess what? The terrorists HAVE taken the fight overseas. For years they have been in countries all over the world planning and plotting to do the very thing they did in London...and they did it and will do it again, Iraq war or not.

Bush is so simplistic in his understanding of war and of human nature that he completely misunderestimates the human condition, and frankly, the intelligence of the American people. Since when does a war in one country preclude a war in another? American troops are in both Afghanistan and Iraq- does that mean we can't send them to Iran if the need arises? (and I'm sure the need will arise...but we will save that for another post)

The US invasion of Iraq is completely irrelevant to the war on terror. Period. Until someone, somewhere in a position of influence and power either realizes this or takes the necessary steps to implement this ideology, we are wasting lives, time, money and resources on a battle we will not be able to win because it is a battle against common sense.

Already he has simplified the personalities and ideals of the terrorists as "evil" and has said "we will spread an ideology of hope and compassion that will overwhelm their ideology of hate". So simple and yet so completely wrong. Ok, I agree with the whole evil thing, I mean, anyone who would bomb innocent civilians is evil...unless the bombers are American troops, and then it is perfectly understandable. See, not so simple- if they do it and it is evil, why can our people do it and we write it off as "a mistake" or flat out lie and say that the terrorists place innocent civilians in areas where they are hiding so that women and children will be killed just to make American troops look bad.

Bush is spreading the "ideology of hate" by not focusing on Afghanistan and finding the one true evil we can do something about- Osama Bin Laden. The world was behind the USA when we invaded Afghanistan, but as time went on and he began his push to invade Iraq at the expense of the Afghan people, he lost momentum and respect. It is time to save face and refocus on Afghanistan and Bin Laden- send in more troops, find him, put him on trial and let's begin to rebuild the credibility of the good ol' USA.