Our initial plan was to say nothing about the 5th anniversary, since at least until 2009, it's going to be managed as a Republican party event. But a couple of things. First, given that the killing of Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud in 2001 looked very soon afterwards like a precursor to the 9/11 attack, it's unsettling to see the Taliban, 5 years later, again managing a strike against a popular Afghan leader; this time it's Abdul Hakim Taniwal who by all accounts was an invaluable member of the government. A disturbing echo.
And second, Christopher Hitchens in the Wall Street Journal (subs. req'd; free link), taking evident pleasure in the following thought:
"We" -- and our allies -- simply have to become more ruthless and more experienced. An unspoken advantage of the current awful strife in Iraq and Afghanistan is that it is training tens of thousands of our young officers and soldiers to fight on the worst imaginable terrain, and gradually to learn how to confront, infiltrate, "turn," isolate and kill the worst imaginable enemy. These are faculties that we shall be needing in the future.
A nice mixture of almost-parodic tough talk from a Washington keyboarder, and the very Bush sentiment that winning the war on terror is simply a matter of being willing to be ruthless enough.
No comments:
Post a Comment