Baal’s got nothing. Why does that not surprise me.

If Bush’s “strategy” is off in your expert opinion, provide a better one. Or is nagging a strategy?

Since you ‘agree’ with the 2nd Ammendment, what would be your solution to VTech, big?

I agree with the fact that we must stop radical extremist terrorists(and Islamic fundamentalists are the biggest problem of this type that we currently face in the world).

Those people are crazy man!

I meant “we should not”.

When I referred to bin Laden’s statement as a strategy, I misspoke. It is a tactic. Clausewitz’s On War says that one tactic a defending army can use is to trade space/land for time. That is exactly what bin Laden and his fellow travelers did.

We invaded Afghanistan and Iraq while al Qaeda and the Baathists withdrew trading the territory they held in Afghanistan with the Taliban for time. Time was on their side, but not on ours.

As Ralph Peters and Victor Hanson has pointed out, democracies are great at revenge, but not lousy on pre-emption.

It’s like Bush saying:

A strategy would be: we’re going to do the following things, and if we are successful, the result will be them being on the run, us finding them, and killing them.

I don’t fault Bush much with these kinds of statements. It’s a given that the Bush Administration has a natural reticence for any kind of communication, but I don’t find that a handicap when it comes to these kinds of matters.

We are fighting an intelligence war. Most of our actions must be, of necessity, covert. And as such, we should broadcast our strategies across the airwaves. It’ll be like telling a cockroach, “Stay right where you are ’cause I’m gonna squash you like… like a cock-a-roach!” More than likely, your targets will conduct evasive maneuvers and you’d have to come up with something else.

Personally, I want my President to be vague in discussing these matters. I just wish President Bush was more articulate in front of the camera…

It seems we disagree fundamentally about how to conduct this war, BigAl, and we advocate two very distinct strategies on how to go about it. One strategy advocates keeping the war at a low level conflict, the other strategy advocates a broader conception of the war. However, perhaps we can agree that Radical Islamic Fundamentalism is bad and must be stopped. Perhaps we can also agree that this will be a long drawn out war (even if it is conducted out of sight on a strictly on a covert operations basis).

BigAl, I’m trying to find some common ground here. There has got to be some things we agree about in this war, right?

There’s more than that that you would benefit from remembering, B.

That is great Dennis, I will have to remember this one.

we’re gonna get ‘em on the run, and find them, and kill them.

That would be a desired result, not a strategy.

A strategy would be: we’re going to do the following things, and if we are successful, the result will be them being on the run, us finding them, and killing them.