Catie, re my sisyphean attempt to dwell on the Mumbaian massacre–you are correct, of course. If I tried to unwind the ball of yarn that is the War On Terror to the easily bored, I would be seeing eyes glaze over by the time I’d gotten to the phrase, “formerly Bombay”.

But, luckily, I know that GDAH4TB is a place for the philosopher to come, pour some social lubricant, and let down our hair a bit to discuss issues of the day. I try not to assume this conversation on many in the 3-D world, without first asking a few basic questions of the person to see if it’s even going to be a conversation, or the abovementioned eye-glazing result.

Can’t say that I have!

Good one, Admin. I hadn’t heard the characterization of him so eloquently put, but he seems to nail it–if the shoe fits, wear it.

We should all be aware of the timing of this Western-targeted al-Qaeda (Deccan Mujahadeen, specifically) strike. Anything that hits not only our heroic men and women in the Armed Forces, but our civilians traveling in Mumbai, India, or ANYwhere, is to be seen as a strike on our homeland back home.

The fact is that al-Qaeda and many other Islamofascist cells accomplish their goals not as much by the immediate death and carnage, like the American, British, and Jews that are being targeted in Mumbai right now, but from the great media exposure and reaction afterwards. From this action, we see that our support of Israel is to be shared with our Iraq war as reasons for this Mumbai attack.

We have been graced with a commander-in-chief who brought back the notion of “No more” to these jackals we call Islamofascists. When was the last time you heard of such a well-planned excursion to blow up and kill our US citizens directly while they are overseas, not in combat regions? The USS Cole comes quickly to mind. But there were many others in the 1990′s (under Clinton and his cadre of experts): Saudi Arabia’s bombing of Riyadh and the Kobar Towers, two different US Embassies in two African countries, etc.

Just what is al-Qaeda (and soon to be more who may emerge from the caves to test us) demonstrating by this Mumbai incident?

That we are now weak, due in part to the fact that president Bush is a lame duck, uneager to make dramatic gambles in his waning days, and that we now have Barack Obama as the safeguard for Americans abroad, and at home (shudder). Make no mistake–this action was planned well before this election was concluded, and it was conceived as a strike at the American electoral system and our Constitution. Both deep wells that could be upset during a vulnerable time in a nation’s history, like…when we’re changing presidents, for instance.

How Barry handles this will foretell MUCH of what we can expect from him for the next four years. So far I haven’t heard anything with meat from him, only that “we need to forge better relations with the Indians”. I hope to God that some hawk somewhere around him impresses the reality of this whole thing we call, ‘foreign policy’ to him. Too much time growing up in colleges, where only the theoretical impresses, not the ones who have ‘been there and done it’. Anything is possible when it’s on paper: “We can arrest the bad guy terrorists by making better relations abroad”.

HE took the words right out of my mouth.