yep. one thing leads to another. but, if you read douglas feith's latest whitewash, the neocons were just protecting our freedom and way of life. right...

President Obama, after recent actions in Yemen, clearly has not read his own counterinsurgency adviser's book, David Kilcullen's The Accidental Guerrilla. Maybe he delegated the task to someone else.

Great article:

In WW2 "Terrorists" were called the "resistance"

Lets flip the coin here:

Iraq establishes multiple bases in Mexico with the intent to take oil from Texas. Once the idea is sold to the Iraqi's they cross the Rio Grande. Will the Texans tolerate such an act on sovereign soil? Are the Texans "terrorists" for attempting to defend the only true natural resource in their possession that could potentially help them escape their economic strains?
Will the Texans tolerate their children dying from air attacks by UAV's from Air Force pilots sitting thousands of miles away?

No, Texas will fight. They will plant bombs, or do whatever it takes to slow, hinder or incapacitate the these invaders who are clearly after one thing only, their oil.

Why do these people hate us? Because we invaded their countries with ridiculous notions all in order to oppress, control and take possession of their natural resources.

So that we do not have to financially compete for it a decade from now when China and India will clearly be able to outbid us for it due to our wonderful debt, thank you and you are welcome Wall Street.

Why are we in Afghanistan? Chasing bad bad guys? No, we are using excuses (again) to build permanent logistical bases to finish surrounding China, just in case they call in their loans....

Who are the real terrorists?

Morons, perhaps. But economics -- at least, classical Western economics -- teaches that people tend to pursue their self interest. Not just in markets, but in government as well.

Cui Bono.

If some nation invaded the USA, and began torturing your grandfather/grandmother, father/mother, sisters/brothers, sons/daughters, friends - at will for no reason and gave no rights or power to the abused - and was unrelenting and implacable...

what would you do??

I'd fight those SOB's by any and all means possible with justice and liberty on my side.

"America fighting wars to preserve democracy and freedom through the torture of innocents accorded no rights."

Give me a break, you BLIND HYPOCRITES!!

"Morons" - that's accurate.

Sometimes what appears to be idiotic behavior is done intentionally by those whose aim is to destroy that which they appear to be supporting.

I've often wondered what it might be like somehow to be transported back into time to late 1939 early 1940 in Poland to experience first hand Nazism in its most characteristic expressions, Einsatzgruppen ethnic cleaning, Gestapo torture and the like. Precisely what kind of human being was it that might be capable voluntarily of carrying out such practices? Tonight as I watched the McLaughlin Report on PBS, I found out. There, discussing the case of the Panty Bomber, was the hate-filled, almost rabid Monica Crowley actually and quite openly calling for the waterboarding of this individual. Here, I thought, is the face of the notorious Else Koch of Buchenwald, the one that made lampshades out of the skin of murdered Jews and Gypsies, here the very same mind set that propelled Rudolf Hoess at Auschwitz. Let no one every say it can't happen here; it already has. In its all-too-noticeable present day iteration, National Socialism lives on in all its virulence in Monica Crowley and in the ideological movement with which she is identified, neo-conservatism. When the public advocacy of torture is tolerated without complaint on government supported television, a line has been crossed. The America I loved as a boy during and right after the Second World War is forever gone. This is 1933 and Adolf Hitler is again breathing down our necks.

Andrei Vyshinsky

So, what influence in the US has led the country to invade these foreign nations?

Have you started fomenting a plan to eradicate this influence out of your nation?

The not so startling site of the right wing talking heads calling for torture of the panty bomber and for the forever detention without trial and or representation shows how thin their citizenship is. How they get a following gives me great cause for concern.

As others have pointed out, those who use techniques that create more terrorists while claiming to be fighting terrorism are obeying their subconscious minds at least, if not their conscious minds. Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, et al. would not be happy in a world where they could not see themselves as knights of the Light, fighting the forces of Darkness; so they do what they can to ensure that there is always Darkness. In my opinion, they are insane, absolute masters of "double-think". But I don't think they're morons.

So this is how it goes. We kidnap someone from their home, imprison and torture them for years then let them go. Do you think that they will put an American flag on their porch and a picture of GW43 on their mantle?
You want to defeat terrorism, quit making more terrorists.
Americans were appalled about the attempted attack on a civilian airliner. Many of these same people will say that civilians are fair game if they are brown skinned middle easterners.

Worse, IDIOTES (they just don't care).!

http://www.danielpipes.org/comments/163591
I think we have to start the conversation with the understanding that islamist have 'hated' us and everything non-caliphate long before Israel existed, before the Palestine question, and before our short sighted "blow back" foreign policy.
All the chocolate puppy/rainbow pony policies will not change their irrational hatred of freedom.
We need to honestly recognize the enemy for what they are, not what we hope they will be. Do despots and fanatics respond to negotiations or strength?
Also remember, we have done more than any other nation to prevent muslims from killing other muslims-even to the point of bombing our own allies in Bosnia.

I want to thank Suzie Q and one of the Anonymous posts before her for pointing out something almost everyone else seems to ignore: One mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter. It drives me crazy every time the media, or some form of publication, refers to these people as terrorists or insurgents instead of what they really are; freedom fighters.

Why do people continue this illusion that citizens of countries we've invaded wouldn't possibly fight back? Especially after we've annihilated their military comprised of their sons and fathers and uncles and brothers? Bombed their cities? Capture and torture their friends and family members? Because to call them by their rightful titles, freedom or resistance fighters, we legitimize their fight against us. And that's bad for PR.

Go to dictionary.com and look up terrorist and tell me who the REAL terrorists of the world are.

Peter U said:All the chocolate puppy/rainbow pony policies will not change their irrational hatred of freedom.

They do not hate our freedom! They hate what our government does with that freedom in the name of WE The People and they think that We The People let them do this.THAT is why they hate us.

If the CIA in it's paranoia wasn't so busy terrorizing around the world,instead of working to protect America in a REAL proactive manner, then we might not have so many enemies round the world. (with that list growing daily)

Our government is playing right into the terrorist hands because they refuse to do anything else besides flex their military muscle in one form or another and they clearly cannot do what is needed to keep us safe.All brawn and no brain. History has PROVEN time and time again that this brawn stratagy with out balance does not work.

The terrorist have learned the lessons of Rome.Our government in it's arrogance has not.You know whats funny about that?? Many of the terrorist can't read! But they know how to bankrupt us by causing us to do it to ourselves by spreading ourselves way to thin around the world. Please do some in depth research into this subject instead of condescending commentating.

Faith-R-Michaels said "Please do some in depth research . . . "
Please do at least a drive by reading of Mr. Pipes article. My point is that even before our short-sighted blow-back foreign policy the islamists were hating and killing and terrorizing. So the predisposition to islam inspired violence and freedom hating pre-dates the last 50 years.
Terrorists target civilians, even their own civilians, Freedom Fighters target the military.
A line crossed by the IRA among others.
You don't still believe the poverty-breeds-terrorists canard, do you?

I agree and disagree with the author. Seems to me that much of what's being done to combat jihadis is wrongheaded, counterproductive, and a huge waste of time, money, and lives. This can be directly traced to the fact that the US and Saudia are joined at the hip economically through the petrodollar. US political and military action is really Saudi political and military action. When one starts to understand this, US action, or rather mis-action, becomes very clear.

If someone hits you, hit him right back. Those who are tortured have every right to fight and kill.