If Military Power was Sufficient to Defeat Terrorism.....
Israel would be the safest place in the world. And it isn't.
If you don't believe me, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violence_in_the_Israeli-Palestinian_conflict_2005 In 2005 3,225 Palestinians were killed by Israelis and 950 Israeli Jews were killed by Palestinians. Even if you ignore the Palestinians - and why not, everyone else does - the numbers are staggering. 72% of Israel's population of 7 million are Jews. That calculates out to about 5 million souls.
So about 1 out of 5,000 Israeli Jews were killed last year by terrorism. 9/11, the most dramatic terrorism attack in U.S., and arguably world history, killed 1 in 100,000 Americans. So on a pro-rata basis, every year the Israeli's go through an event 20 times worse than 9/11. Every year.
I know the analogy, like all analogies, is flawed. Still, as that scum sucker Britt Hume once said about some lie he told on Fox - "Its illustrative of something."
War on Terror. War on Poverty. War on Drugs.
Not a real war in the bunch, unless you have adopted the revised meaning of literal as figurative. So there is a literal war on terror, and a literal war on poverty, and a literal war on drugs. And I could literally eat a horse. Mmmmm, horse.
War without end. The long war. Undeclared wars.
If the Israeli experience tells us anything it is that a great military can win battles. Iraq tells us that we can overthrow a government. By the way, lets call this conflict what it is - Gulf War II - The Overthow of Saddam. Or, more skeptically - Gulf War II - Finishing up Poppy's Business.
What we need to learn is that, in the long run, this is a PR war. We win by NOT making people hate us faster than we can kill them.
If you don't believe me, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violence_in_the_Israeli-Palestinian_conflict_2005 In 2005 3,225 Palestinians were killed by Israelis and 950 Israeli Jews were killed by Palestinians. Even if you ignore the Palestinians - and why not, everyone else does - the numbers are staggering. 72% of Israel's population of 7 million are Jews. That calculates out to about 5 million souls.
So about 1 out of 5,000 Israeli Jews were killed last year by terrorism. 9/11, the most dramatic terrorism attack in U.S., and arguably world history, killed 1 in 100,000 Americans. So on a pro-rata basis, every year the Israeli's go through an event 20 times worse than 9/11. Every year.
I know the analogy, like all analogies, is flawed. Still, as that scum sucker Britt Hume once said about some lie he told on Fox - "Its illustrative of something."
War on Terror. War on Poverty. War on Drugs.
Not a real war in the bunch, unless you have adopted the revised meaning of literal as figurative. So there is a literal war on terror, and a literal war on poverty, and a literal war on drugs. And I could literally eat a horse. Mmmmm, horse.
War without end. The long war. Undeclared wars.
If the Israeli experience tells us anything it is that a great military can win battles. Iraq tells us that we can overthrow a government. By the way, lets call this conflict what it is - Gulf War II - The Overthow of Saddam. Or, more skeptically - Gulf War II - Finishing up Poppy's Business.
What we need to learn is that, in the long run, this is a PR war. We win by NOT making people hate us faster than we can kill them.
posted by Howard at 2:04 AM
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