September 12, 2006 - Reducing terrorism is not a job for the military

President Bush’s five-year commemoration speech suggests he has learned nothing since 911, as he once again repeated the same fallacious arguments that have become the hallmark of his misguided presidency (“On somber day, Bush urges unity”, 9-12.)

Bush was wrong when he repeated the discredited claim that Saddam Hussein's regime "posed a risk that the world could not afford to take" because nearly the entire world was prepared to take the “risk” and the world was proven right. Before the U.S. invaded Iraq, Saddam was contained, he had no WMDs or ties to Al Queda, but Bin Laden, the presumed mastermind of 911, was loose—and due in large part to Bush’s Iraqi misadventure, Bin Laden is still free five years after 911!

Bush was also wrong when he stated that the Iraq war will "set the course for this new century”. It is understandable that Bush would try to elevate to a central place in history an enterprise in which he was the central actor, but the dominant paradigm-shifting force of this century is not likely to the sweep of democracy throughout the Middle East, but rather something Bush is evidently still in denial about: global warming and its associated “disruptions.”

When compared to global warming, terrorism is a second-level threat. But terrorism can be effectively managed only after the American president admits that invading Iraq was a mistake, apologizes to the U.N. and the Iraqi people, and begins to earn the international trust and cooperation needed to capture terrorists and dry up the “sea” of discontentment in which terrorists now safely swim.

Finally, Bush got it all wrong when he stated, "Winning this war will require the determined efforts of a unified country.” We simply will never be able to unite around a false premise—there is not and cannot be a war against a tactic (terrorism.) In short, regardless of what Mr. Bush says, reducing the threats from global terrorism is primarily a political and “intelligence” undertaking, and does not lend itself to military solutions or martial rhetoric.

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