Just because I acknowledge there's a crazy cult in the hills, that doesn't mean I go picking a fight with them. If ONE nut comes picking a fight with me, then I go after that one nut, not every crazy alive.
I think the point a lot of liberal thinkers (including myself) try to make is that there were many ways to pursue bin Laden after 9/11, and that invading Iraq wasn't one of them. No matter how you slice it, the Iraq and Afghanistan strategies aren't working. If anything, the situation in Afghanistan is unchanged for most average people, but the titular head of the government is friendly to the U.S. The situation in Iraq (for U.S. interests) is far worse. There was no discernible terrorist activity there before - now Iraq is the new home of al-Quaeda. Yes, Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator, but so is Mugabe in Zimbabwe. So is that nut in Uzebeckistan. So is Kim Jung Il. So is....
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I think the point a lot of liberal thinkers (including myself) try to make is that there were many ways to pursue bin Laden after 9/11, and that invading Iraq wasn't one of them. No matter how you slice it, the Iraq and Afghanistan strategies aren't working. If anything, the situation in Afghanistan is unchanged for most average people, but the titular head of the government is friendly to the U.S. The situation in Iraq (for U.S. interests) is far worse. There was no discernible terrorist activity there before - now Iraq is the new home of al-Quaeda. Yes, Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator, but so is Mugabe in Zimbabwe. So is that nut in Uzebeckistan. So is Kim Jung Il. So is....