>You're doing the Hitchens thing here, characterizing those who oppose war
>because they endorse terrorists.
Did anyone read that long Seymour Hersh transcript I posted? He made several points that don't fit into the black/white binary that usually surrounds this issue.
>"We didn't win the war in Afghanistan; I don't care what George Bush
>says. I don't care that George Bush doesn't know much, but the
>people around him should know more who don't seem to know more. That
>bothers me. We didn't win the war in Afghanistan. Right now, we're
>not being told very much. We're sort of pacified, because we're all
>scared, too, and we don't know what's going to happen, and we don't
>like what happened to us.
>
>...
>
>"Al Qaeda was not destroyed in the war. Afghanistan was. Is our
>country doing anything significant to rebuild the country,
>nation-building, all those things? Anything that would suggest that
>when we move on to Iraq it might do some good? Iraq might emerge
>better? If the model of going into Iraq is Afghanistan, boy, you can
>understand why people might be very worried.
>
>"We have a man in Pakistan, Musharraf, who has seized power. We now
>have changed the game. We have a new Cold War. In the old days, the
>way it worked was, anybody, any despot, any fingernail-puller, that
>was against the Communists was our man. If you were against the
>Communists, you were our boy.
>
>"Now we've got the same standard. If you are willing to join the
>fight against terrorism, why, you're our boy. So we're now in
>business with Musharraf, who not only deposed the government and
>became the military leader; now he's trying to be elected as the
>civilian leader. And God knows what he's gonna do with Kashmir once
>he gets us where he wants us . . . .We have completely dropped the
>notion that democracy is of great interest to us.
>
>"We're really going the wrong way. I think we're in real trouble.
>I'm sure this is the most serious threat we've ever faced since the
>Third Reich. We have people that are committed that hate us, and
>that want to destroy us, and instead of dealing with the underlying
>issues that get people that way, we make it worse."
>
>...
>
>"And I'm telling you right now, it's gonna get much worse. They're
>gonna do Iraq. It doesn't matter what the reality is. It's what he
>wants to do. He's the president; he's gonna get it. And they're
>gonna tell themselves it's gonna work. And it doesn't matter how
>many more terrorists we're gonna make, and it doesn't matter that
>the Iraqis have made it clear to us, if we ever do invade Iraq,
>whatever [Saddam Hussein] has left in the way of missiles . . .
>.where's he gonna go, folks? He's gonna send everything he has to
>downtown Tel Aviv. And I don't think we're gonna be able to convince
>the Israelis to restrain themselves. So we have a possibility of
>some sort of horrible Armageddon.
>
>"And you look at how we don't go after Ashcroft because he is
>attorney general. And we know it reeks, but we don't do much about
>it. And I think we will still survive. America's not gonna go down.
>We're a very powerful country. But I think it's gonna be much
>harder. I'm skeptical. These people who don't like us are different,
>and we're not adjusting very well."