Still Out There

Lest we forget, the Islamic fundamentalist whack-job terrorists are still out there, trying to incite Armegeddon. While the general mendaciousness of the Cheney administration is such that news of getting terrorists usually means something blown out of proportion, like the recent arrests in Miami, the al Qaeda network is real, it is operational, and it is going to keep trying to hit major capitals. Al Qaeda has murdered thousands of people around the globe, Muslim and non-Muslim alike.

A year ago today, they struck London. Today, the FBI announced it had, in cooperation with intelligence operations in other countries, broken up a legitimate plot to do suicide bombing on PATH trains below the Hudson River. For those of you not familair with the area, the PATH (Port Authority Trans-Hudson) is a lightrail system that connects New York City to New Jersey via rail lines that run in tunnels under the Hudson River. A major PATH station had been located under the WTC complex.

It is worth noting that this interception has probably saved the lives of hundreds if not thousands of communters and forestalled a massive interruption to travel and communications. This was not done with sabre-rattling and military might, but by quiet, stealthy police work, tracking down the leads and cornering the bastards where they live. Thousands of Lebanese did not have to die to apprehend these guys.

There is no debate. We know what works in fighting terrorism and we know what does not. Spies, policing and very targeted, very small military strikes are what work. Full scale invasions do not. The only location where an invasion had any legitimate role was Afghanistan, and that was to secure a territory that was in a condition of chaos and tribal war, providing a perfect location for terrorist base operations.

The Cheneyites have been wrong on terrorism from Day 1 in the White House, when they scoffed and dismissed its threat. Thousands of Americans and hundreds of other nationals perished because of their inaction. Since then, tens of thousands more have died for no good reason.

And Osama bin Laden is still out there.

Anglachel