The war on terror has changed somewhat, but not a lot. While new facts are emerging since the election of Barack Obama, we have a long way to go before we can find a peaceful resolution to this conflict.
The problem with this war is that we aren’t at war with a country, we’re at war with an ideology, one that pervades all nations. The enemy is anywhere and everywhere. Some of them walk amongst us. Some hide in the shadows.
Osama Bin Laden makes himself out to be a great warrior, but he is not. He is a coward of the highest magnitude. If he were truly the warrior he makes himself out to be, he would come out and confront us in the open, instead of hiding in caves and sending his minions — sometimes women and children — to do his dirty work.
But if Bin Laden was winning this war, it was because he had an accomplice: George W. Bush. In the name of fighting the bogey man, Bush systematically disassembled the fundamentals of democracy, coming close to turning America into a police state with warrantless wiretaps and incarceration of prisoners without any kind of due process. And by employing torture, he has brought us down to the level of the terrorists, giving Al Qaeda a moral victory.
Both he and Dick Cheney, and most of the other top officials in their administration, should be tried for their war crimes in an international tribunal.
Then we need to get over September 11 and move on.
Bush was well known for saying, “You’re either for us, or you’re with the terrorists.” Believe me, that video clip — as well as the infamous “Mission Accomplished” — will go down in history right alongside “the only thing we have to fear…” But, no, Mr. Bush. I am for the American People. Remember them? They know who their real friends are… and their real enemies.
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