We lost.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Dov, you have absolutely no right to sneer, no matter how vociferously you claim it: it's invalid. Also, it would be masochistic of you to try, for the harder you do, the more I chainsaw and sandbag you for leftwing lunacy: totalitarianism and supporting totalitarianism are things of the Left, after all. I can last longer than you can -- we're of an age, but I think better than you do and am permanently ready to prove it, at least to the objective observer.

It's inaccurate to speak of my being "a fan of anarchy". I am untroubled by the instability that is occurring as Iraq transitions from socialist oligarchy to greater democracy, and since Afghanistan's condition with or without outsiders taking an interest is but slightly removed from anarchy anyway, I'd hardly call their condition deteriorated from when the Taliban were fucking the place up -- and, I think, allowing opium/heroin trafficking. Afghanis are always going to be ornery; their geography very much encourages that, along with their linguistic situation, et cetera at some length.

The reason I'm untroubled is that shifts from an old order to a new one are always at least somewhat iffy, and the blasts of car bombs remain largely in one part of the country, and not the other two ethnic areas. They've been killing people for two and a half years now, and are they any closer to carrying the day with Iraqis? No. The Iraqi population is hitching its wagon to a different horse, that of representative democracy. The insurgents have absolutely nothing to offer but banditry now, and a future prospect of banditry institutionalized should, Allah forfend, they ever get back in power by ANY means.

Getting OBL is not the same as getting Al-Qaeda, which is what really has to happen to win. Al-Qaeda has to be deprived of the "sea of the people" that the guerrillas swim in. Capturing OBL would be more of a cherry on top rather than something essential to mopping AQ up, and would happen after AQ gets repudiated by their fans in Waziristan and the tribal territories in northwestern Pakistan.

Such WMD as survive are probably in Syria, whose Ba'athist government is keeping its head well down, doubtless grateful that Iran's nuclear endeavors are getting all the attention. There does seem to be evidence that WMD went to Syria -- you'll recall the aborted twinned-agent Sarin attack attempted on Amman, Jordan. The Jordanians got these guys, who had trucked about twenty tons of the stuff out of Syria. I've never heard that Syria was a twinned-agent Sarin producer. Even had the attack succeeded, what benefit could the fanatics have realized? I think it would be thoroughly negative, as the entire Islamic world would have been appalled at such an internecine attack. Our self-made, self-declared enemies (and they are your enemies too, if you're really any description of Jew) are a real bouquet of assholes. I don't see any validity in opposing efforts to wipe 'em slick.