See that's the main area where many Bush supporters disagree with supporters of the guy that served in Vietnam. The war on terror is multi-faceted and it doesn't begin and end with any ONE place or any ONE person. The US was late getting into the game and we should have been on war-footing decades ago. No one likes change..and I think Bush is the first president that is putting the US on the offensive instead of the defensive. I actually think he'll be appreciated many years down the road...vs now where people want to write him off as an evil Texan who just wants to pick fights.

Bin Laden was NEVER the main objective in this war. It was widely understood that Al Qaeda was structured in a way that if it was decapitated, it would keep functioning.

The War on Terror is based on the notion that the only way to prevent another 9-11 (or worse) is to eliminate the root causes that allow Al Qaeda to exist. This means remaking the Middle East so that incompetent governments don't blame the US, through demagoguery, for everything. It means removing the influence of the radical madrassas. It also means that its time for the Middle East to cease being one of the few areas on Earth that is disengaged from the rest of humanity.

Terrorism picked up a thing or two from the communist playbook: compartmentalize yourself into small cells so that the loss of an operative by capture or death won't kill off the whole organization.

Whacking or capturing Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and or any of the identified top dogs of al-Qaeda won't kill off the organization. You need to be systematic and absolutely ruthless to wipe out all traces of al-Qaeda and any allied terror associations before you can rightfully say 'the war against terrorism is won'. And that's no guarantee that another hothead will find a cache of weapons and start the process all over again.

If the talent and leadership of these murderers are liquidated, they will fall apart after a while. This is assuming other tasks are undertaken as well to eliminate their support...sorta like dieting while exercising.

-Rudey

I can go with that.

I bet you couldn't. I bet politics would bias you so much that you wouldn't and couldn't.

-Rudey

:rolleyes: I just agreed with you, now let my boys have some air ok?