I’m long overdue for my inaugural post here at Booman Tribute, where some of my fellow bloggers have been kind enough to invite the occasional post from me. I’ve had my own national security blog, Arms and Influence, for almost two years. This is the first time I’ve posted outside of it. It feels…odd. But kinda nice.
It’s a good time to branch out, given the news items du jour. Many within the Republican Party are clearly losing their suspension of disbelief about the Bush Administration’s counterterrorism and Iraq strategies. Meanwhile, the engines of religious conflict–the same motive force behind the 9/11 attacks–continue to roar, heard most loudly in a global controversy over, of all things, a series of cartoons in a Danish newspaper. The mainstream press, having done an astoundingly bad job covering the Global War on Something That Makes Us Vaguely Anxious, is feeling the sting not only of its readers, but of a federal prosecutor.
What a difference four years make. Of course, in four years of fighting World War II, the United States had actually defeated the Axis powers and helped liberate Europe and Asia. Four years after 9/11, we’re still trying to figure out whom we’re fighting.
That’s where I hope my electronic scribblings help. I’ve been trying to apply the general principles of military strategy and the particulars of counterinsurgency and counterterrorism to the discussion of current events. The good news is, “we can do better.” Unlike the Democratic leadership, however, it’s up to us as informed citizens to help go beyond that simple slogan, to spell out exactly what that different strategy is. Obviously, almost no one in a prominent position in American politics is interested or capable of taking that discussion about our national insecurities where it needs to go.
