Quote of the Day

I think-- with the Bush years slowly winding down-- we are beginning to see some sanity (again, slowly) returning to the issue of terrorism. You have presidential candidate John Edwards saying that he is not going to use the 'war on terror' terminology and outlook (calling it "a Bush-created political phrase"). Military and congressional officials are also getting away from it. And you even have the position of President Bush himself (quietly) shifting to the point where he's now saying the exact same things that Sen. Kerry was ripped apart for saying in 2004.

And then yesterday I read this piece by Andrew Sullivan on the Iraq war, democracy in the Middle East, and terrorism. It stuck out to me because of its soberness. Keep in mind that this guy who said 5 days after 9/11 that "The middle part of the country - the great red zone that voted for Bush - is clearly ready for war. The decadent Left in its enclaves on the coasts is not dead - and may well mount what amounts to a fifth column." He did come to his senses (again, slowly) during 2004.

And now in 2007, here he is agreeing that-- gosh-- maybe we should put the whole thing into perspective and calm the hell down. He wrote yesterday-

"The great unanswered question of our time is: why have we not had another major terror attack since 9/11 in America? I don't know the answer. Although I'm sure the CIA has foiled some plots, our knowledge of the competence of the federal government should inhibit us from assigning them too much credit. Perhaps serious global jihad is indeed the province of a few wealthy and motivated religious fanatics, and not the widespread threat we fear. Perhaps Arab culture is unproductive even when it comes to murdering innocents. Perhaps we've been lucky. I certainly don't buy the idea that the war in Iraq is somehow preventing them from attacking us here. You can't find 19 true-believers to get on a plane while you're pursuing a classic Arab insurgency? The point of terror on a 9/11 scale is partly to get us to over-estimate the strength of the enemy. Maybe they succeeded. And maybe, as a result, we're trapped."

I, here in my enclave on the coast, fully agree with this.

Baby steps, my friends. Baby steps.