Or I shall piss my pants.
The cognitive dissonance of the right is sometimes too much for a mere mortal to endure. These brave and manly men who are reduced to a puddle on the floor by one wackjob with a rocket in his pocket are really too much. And the baying for Obama to do something - anything - to reassure them (as if he ever could) is such a pathetic spectacle.
A couple of things stand out. One, on an objective level, Obama has been rather militarily aggressive in terms of battling Al Qaeda. He has escalated the war in Afghanistan, increased the use of drone attacks in Pakistan (while pressuring its government to also increase its level of aggressiveness), while also taking the drone war to Yemen and other parts of the Horn of Africa. In short, this Administration has been far more serious about killing Al Qaeda members than its predecessor, which authored the debacle of Tora Bora, while essentially creating a whole new branch of AQ in Iraq.
So what would the boys in the yellow-stained shorts have our President do differently? Have you seen any serious policy proposals by them (and by serious, I mean something that doesn't make you spurt coffee on your monitor -- soft bigotry of low expectations and all that)? It seems to me that upon reading their rants that they want rhetoric, Dirty Harry-like threats against the Mussulman -- things like "smoke 'em out and kill 'em", or hunt 'em down and kill 'em or "blind 'em, burn 'em, and blast 'em," (It's very important to leave off the "th" in "them" for some reason) or other such sweet nothings that they whisper when they are playing with their little soldiers. It strikes me as rather ironic that what they really crave are big words from Obama -- which I thought they criticized him for in the past -- to make themselves feel better. They want to hear about war, they want to to hear about terror, and mostly they want everyone to share their feelings of terror. Obama is giving them war -- in my opinion probably too much war -- but he is depriving them of the soundtrack, which is what they really crave. Coldly killing our adversaries without appropriate chest thumping and cries of "make my day" just doesn't satisfy them.
The reality of our situation is unfortunately more prosaic and disturbing. Demented assholes like the crotch bomber or Richard Reid or Doctor Hasan can come from anywhere, not just Afghanistan or Pakistan. Al Qaeda can recruit and train people in many parts of the world or simply "inspire" the fanatical and dim-witted to act on their own in the cause of "jihad." Another 50,000 or 100,000 troops in Afghanistan isn't going to make a difference because we are dealing with a political tendency that can take root anywhere among a small group of apocalyptic idiots. In short, when candidate John Kerry described Islamic terrorism as largely a police and intelligence matter he was absolutely correct, despite the contempt flung his way. (Kerry, having actually been on a battlefield or two, might have gleaned some insight in these matters.)
Clearly, we have a long way to go to get the intelligence capability and coordination down. This guy was handed to us on a silver platter by his own father and we still couldn't get it together to keep him out of the country. That is genuinely disturbing.
But let's face it, human error is going to occur. Sooner or later one of these shit-birds is likely to succeed in some way, form, or fashion. I dread that day, not only for the casualties that may occur, but also for the test that it will put this country to, one I am not confident that we will pass with flying colors.
