bomb 'em all: and other points made by very small minds

two small quotes that indicate, for all the tentativeness of the leadership of the democratic party of the usa, it is light years ahead of republican thinking on world affairs. The first is from newt gingrich, who, besides giving my name a bad name, is a former everything.

• Gingrich says America is in World War III and President Bush should say so....
• He lists wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, this week's bomb attacks in India, North Korean nuclear threats, terrorist arrests and investigations in Florida, Canada and Britain, and violence in Israel and Lebanon as evidence of World War III. He said Bush needs to deliver a speech to Congress and "connect all the dots" for Americans....
• "This is World War III," Gingrich said. And once that's accepted, he said calls for restraint would fall away. (Seattle Times, July 15, 2006, Posted by David Postman)

uhhh..., ok. so it turns out he is right and there are enemies in florida, canada, britain, india, etc. we bomb them? we go out on scrap drives so we can build ships to go, uhhh....where? it turns out we are not at war with another country (though israel appears to be veering closer to that); we cannot just bomb them. terrorist groups exist. but they don't hold territory, etc. if they do, they soon cease to be terrorists. that was/is the problem of hezbollah's leadership: they were settling down to rule southern lebanon, and then hamas stole their thunder, and, most probably, the young turks (small joke there) among hezbollah got bolshie.

but we can't attack sovereign nations just because they have criminals amongst them. and we can't keep operating as if it is a manichean world with no grey area. and we have to stop operating as if all terrorists are connected to some bond-like s.p.e.c.t.r.e. which was my other quote.

• Bush: You see, the ... thing is what they need to do is to get Syria, to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit and it's over.

i doubt that syria controls hezbollah at this point. i doubt that hezbollah (old leaders) controls hezbollah (young turks) at this point. syria needs to be involved (wouldn't the usa rather have syria than a fundamentalist islamic state there?); iran needs to be involved. but to ignore that there is no united "arc of evil" is to be self-deceived. and, given the reports from iraq and afghanistan these days, is whistling past the graveyard.