Scoreboard:the terrorists are winning

I was reading some news reports and commentaries about the recent plot to blow up planes using household chemicals. On the one hand, it is scary because it seems to continue the trend of suicide for the sake of destruction as opposed to the events as I remember them growing up: hijack a plane, fly to friendly nation, negotiate for a while, maybe whack a hostage or two, lose a terrorist or two, but most people survived. Now they plan to die...and wreak havoc and destruction on their way out the door. It is scarier because unlike the times when there would be a hijacking and negotiation, now there is just...death. Boom, see ya, adios.
On the other hand, it seems a positive step because they are being caught prior to launching their insane, pointless death plots. This is a good thing. It seems to indicate the enhanced vigilance is, indeed, paying some dividends as plotters are being caught BEFORE they launch their attacks.
But even though the terrorists are on the run, hiding underground, and being caught before they do harm...they are winning. Oh, not on the ground...not in activity...but in the papers, in the minds of the people, that is where and how they are winning.
The thing about terrorism has always been it cannot win because it cannot hold the ground. It has traditionally been the refuge of those who do not have the military might to retain territory but still are unwilling to accede to the demands of the legitimate government. Wars have always been fought over territory and those who could maintain a presence in a given territory have often won wars that were lost in the battlefield. Take the American Revolution for example.
The terrorists may or may not have done so intentionally but they have found a way to fight a war where the territory is abstract. I tend to think it was not their intent but rather the result of our politics and the media frenzy. But the indisputable fact is the terrorists are gaining territory and holding it where it really counts...in our heads.
One common theme in the media (and by media I mean newspapers, radio, internet...and that means a lot more than just the professional...it includes the "blogosphere" and so forth...yes, that would include me due to stuff like this here post) has been a clear victory for the terrorists. It is one we hear every day.
The words change a bit but the idea remains the same. Essentially it is the thought that the terrorists are only doing their deeds as a reaction to U.S. aggression. And somehow the thought has crept into the discourse and then become accepted as an article of faith, as a basic truth, that these terrorist attacks on random people are OUR FAULT.
The reasoning seems to be the complete and total guilt for these attacks is laid at the feet of the US because the US, in response to various factors, went to Afghanistan, went to Iraq, etc.
The argument seems to go that if we had not then these continuing attacks and plots would cease.
We, as a nation, have become a group of retards. THEY STRUCK FIRST. These hijackings and killings and bombings and other terrorist activities were going on before Bush took office, they were going on before Clinton took office, they were going on before Bush, before Reagan, before Carter, before Ford, before Nixon, before Johnson, before Kennedy...BEFORE ISRAEL.
What other excuses can people come up with? It isn't Israel's fault...the terrorism dates back to the tactics of the early Muslims before they were Muslims. Study the early work of Mohammed and how he functioned before he founded a religion.
When people say if Israel would go away the terror attacks would stop, they prove themselves to be ignorant of both history and reality. When others say if the US would leave Afghanistan and Iraq the attacks would stop they show the same ignorance. It is not the present circumstances that provide the motivations. that area of the world has operated using terror style attacks for over a millenium.
And saying it is our fault exonerates nobody. The fault lies with the people who commit the acts of destruction and devastation. Strange how on September 12th, 2001 the world stood behind the U.S. wherever they wanted to go. And much like Austria after the Archduke Ferdinand was shot, the U.S. hesitated because it wanted to do things correctly. And with that time delay the emotional impact faded. Then people complained in hindsight when the U.S. went to Iraq, but not until the initial euphoria of doing something new went away.
The war shifted. It became a political game. And both sides of the game in the US have proven themselves idiotic. The administration has done everything they can to present themselves as dishonest, scheming, shifty. The Democrats have tried to be as dishonest, scheming, and shifty. Revisionist history combined with disputed intelligence to show the viewpoint of...well, to be honest, that is a description of what both sides have done.
The administration has been presented as putting out misleading intelligence. And that has been accepted also as an article of faith, an absolute truth because, after all, to Democrats and journalists, it fits what they want the truth to be...even though A) the intelligence community is sharply divided over the accuracy, integrity and value of the intelligence (not to mention the historic and inherent unreliability of the intelligence community) and B) there is still a great deal of intelligence that is classified so they do not and cannot and should not have the complete picture. In their continuing attempt to destroy a man they hate the Democrats have changed reality to fit their flawed perception of something that does not have one answer. However, to hear it presented in the media these days, you will believe nothing other than "Bush lied, there was no intelligence, that is why we are at war". Which then joins with the tired and blatantly inaccurate "We are responsible for the terrorist actions."
And even worse...this has led to a belief we should immediately, regardless of consequences for the Iraquis, leave Iraq in hopes the terrorist activities will cease.
Are we really that stupid? Do we really think leaving will end the terrorist attacks? Do we think surrendering to people who have not won a sinlge battle militarily will convince them not to continue a tactic that proved so successful that less than a hundred people's physical actions imposed their will on the world?Surrendering has NEVER led to a lessening of hostilities on the part of people willing to kill random people for abstract reasonings. Ever. And that is what it would be...a withdrawal in order to end terrorism would be a surrender. And just as ineffective.
Because the war has shifted. This war is not about who died or how. It is not about how US soldiers are perceived by the Iraquis (and as people such as Ken Weikart, actually on the ground there, have reported, it is not at all what the media here in the US presents...he has experienced nothing but love and gratitude. Strange those stories never appear on television. Because we are in a dishonest war. With ourselves.) No, this war is about who can get their political football across the goal line. And neither side is interested in truth. Many Deomcrats would rather move backwards and surrender to the terrorists, giving them an unprecedented victory that undermines everything the US has stood against since the battles against the Barbary Coast pirates way back in the late 17oos and early 1800s. The Republicans want to ignore the stated flaws in the intelligence, ignore elements of the insurgency, and just float merrily along "staying the course" when what the course is has never been defined.
There have been several mutually contradictory statements by the same person that could lead one to consider much of the leadership to be blatant liars. This has been ignored by the Republican leadership. Even more troubling, the foundational ideas of citizen privacy, assumption of innocence, and freedom to live as we wish has been attacked in numerous ways under the guise of battling the terrorists.
So the Democrats have given part of the win by their political tactics to discredit someone they hate, the media has contributed their bit with their presentations of events, and the Republicans have finished it off with their prevarications and deceptions.
With all the numerical, technological, and I would argue moral advantages we have...sad as it is...I have to say from where I sit the terrorists are winning.