[The Don]

[ QUOTE ]
They are not two losing strategies. They are elements of an overall strategy for victory.

Sometimes you need a combination of elements to produce a good result becuase to use each element individually can be disastrous. Example, ingest pure sodium or pure chlorine and you might die. However you have to ingest sodium chloride to live.

Another example, Trying to flee a predator that is faster than you is an ineffective defense. Releasing a smoke screen is also an ineffective defense. However an octupus combines these two ineffective defenses into an effective defensive strategy.

Need more examples?

Stu

[/ QUOTE ]

Good point. One problem though.

I can also combine playing blindfolded with tying my hands behind my back in a basketball game. They are both losing strategies, but they won't combine to help me win at all.

How are these strategies (political and military intervention) going to combine to stop terrorists?

If I am a terrorist, is the fact that the US sets up puppet (anti-terrorist, at least) governments in Iraq and Afghanistan going to stop me from killing Americans if I want to? I mean, after all, my government doesn't consent to it.

Additionally, is the fact that the US military is using force to install these governments going to deter me?

Face it. It isn't that difficult to get into the US. It isn't that difficult to kill a lot of people once you are here. If individuals want to do it, then they will, and there is nothing the US government can do about it. Bush needs to admit that he is wasting money and lives with this boogieman known as "The War on Terror."