Great, we nailed a bad guy. One of the biggest terrorist ringleaders even.
So... when does the "War on Terror" stop?
When do we go back to the America we had before 9-11, when our government didn't run roughshod over the Constitution in the name of "safety and security"? I mean, with Al-Zarqawi out of the picture, there's no more need for anything like our government spying on its own citizens, right? right?
**crickets chirping**
Let's just state the truth of the matter: the "war on terror" is never going to end. It's not supposed to end. It is the perfect example of Orwell's "continuous war", where the state will always have to produce a hobgoblin for its people to fear. Al-Zarqawi has been the big hobgoblin of the past few years. I'm glad that he's gone, if he indeed was doing all of these terrible things... but realistically that only means our government is going to produce another one just like him, and none too soon.
The "war on terror" was the greatest gift that believers in big government ever received. And in spite of today's events, there's no indication that they are going to relinquish that gift in the slightest anytime soon.
2 comments:
"So... when does the "War on Terror" stop?"
That depends on the terrorists. Do they want to still continue making terrorist attacks or do they want to die?
The REAL problem with Iraq - that we are nowhere near to solving - is the long-standing strife between the religious sects there. The example I always go back to is what happened to Yugoslavia in the decade or so after Tito died: so long as he was running the place with a heavy hand, the Serbs and Croats and whatever didn't fight each other. That was probably the *one* good thing that Saddam did, unwittingly: the Saddam regime was a secular government that clamped down on the Sunnis, the Shiites, what Christians there are in Iraq, everybody. Without that kind of powerful figure in place, it's only a matter of time before the country tears itself apart.
Those issues aren't going to go away just because Zarqawi is dead. And we really aren't ready, as the occupying force, to calm tensions among these groups that have been simmering now for going on 1,500 years.
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