The American Spectator

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(Page 6 of 17)

/p> p> High energy costs? That's your number four priority? We clearly live on different planets. I can see the merit of your first three points, although I would not have put them even into my top ten, but high energy costs? That is probably about number 50 on my list. br> -- Paul Roth /p> p> ONE MAN'S TERRORIST br> Re: George H. Wittman's We Can Do It : /p>

Finally. George H. Wittman just about says it outright, which I've not seen any serious person do until now.

Our problem in Iraq and elsewhere is that we have accepted the enemy's first offer: we've agreed to the asymmetric warfare paradigm that favors his strategy, that is his strategy.

Wittman has suggested outline of an effective counteroffer: we reject the asymmetry demanded by the enemy and instead restore the symmetric engagement in which we are, in fact, much better than the enemy is. The spinal image of this kind of engagement would become one of pistol rounds into the heads of sleeping terrorists, rather than gun camera footage of $500,000 munitions striking mud huts from 15K feet up.

There's one more ingredient in this prescription. In Iraq, the behavior of the population at large makes it plain that the presence of terrorists among them is not yet painful enough. The Iraqis have to come to perceive that the costs of harboring terrorists are higher than the costs of getting rid of them. The current distribution of pain is evidently such that the Iraqi population prefers the present situation to one in which they, the people, force the terrorists to surrender, leave or die. They're still more afraid of confronting the terrorists than they are of random bombings or collateral damage from Coalition actions.

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