My nephew Richard and I had a good laugh about the new Homeland Security Threat Level on the left that resulted from Michael Chertoff’s ill-advised warning regarding the terror threat from earlier in the week. But kidding aside, following on this earlier post regarding James Fallows’ Atlantic Monthly piece, this Steve Chapman RCP op-ed provides a level-headed analysis of the actual threat of an attack from Islamic fascists and the counterproductive nature of the Bush Administration’s characterization of the conflict as a global “war on terror.” Check it out.
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Recent events indicate to me that Fallows is largely on point but that the point is made years too late. The U.S. gov’t, by adopting the war metaphor and later invading Iraq obviously took it’s eye off the ball and misunderestimated the importance of the mission in Afghanistan. Now we learn that Al Queda has managed to establish training bases and re-emerge as a potent force from it’s new found home in the largely autonomous region of Pakistan. This is a conflict of ideologies and cultures.