That's Iraq. A nice, safe, secularly-ruled dictatorship that won't offend Muslims quite as much as if we invaded, say, Iran. Sure, Iraq has to go. And yes, the whole world will be pissed (and already is thanks to the New York Times) when we finally bomb them back to the stone age again. But is a war on Iraq really consistent with the war on Militant Islam we are (or should be) fighting? I have no idea. One less terrorist dictator is fine in my book. But does our government even have any type of consistent, rational plan? Again. I have no idea.
I was optimistic. Back in October and November, I gave the Bush administration some slack. To friends I said, "Maybe the only way to actually get anything done in this politicized, touchy-feely climate is to spout politically-correct nonsense while you get ready to push the red button." Now it's July. They've used up their slack.
People continue to carry guns into airports. If they're lucky, they also get to shoot people. We've heard reports that al Qaeda plans to add subways, small planes, and scuba divers to their arsenal of fun and amusing ways to kill Americans. We've read that members of al Qaeda have smuggled themselves into this country and who knows how many shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles.
But don't have a cow about the missiles, man. The FBI says there's nothing to worry about:
"We don't have information that al Qaeda is planning to use these against commercial aircraft in the United States," an FBI official said.
Would somebody tell these assholes that if al Qaeda wanted to sell missiles on eBay, they could do that without leaving home sweet home base in Pakistan?
Attention FBI officials: If you have information that al Qaeda has the missiles, wouldn't it be a somewhat conservative bet to assume they might actually use them? What color alert do you need to understand this? Blue? Purple? Someone ask Tom Ridge which color means "Open your fucking eyes, asshole."
Who would have thought that a country as strong as the United States could potentially be brought down by a few primitive Allah-worshipping life-haters with cell phones and e-mail accounts. On second though, they thought it could be done. I guess 198 million Muslims can't be wrong.
Now I'm being cynical. Thanks a lot, Mr. President.
