What If They Gave a War Against Terror . . .

What if the Adminstration gave a war against terror and no terrorists came ?

Not a problem in Iraq where terrorism, insurgency and civil war have settled in quite nicely. Of course, they weren't having a war until we got there, but that obervation takes us down well-worn paths to conclusions long since concluded.

But, what about the Home Front where the Department of Homeland Security stands with hydra-headed vigilance to protect the Volk (oops, sorry, strike that) the American People against domestic attacks by Al Qaeda sleeper cells. And what an overwhelming success their efforts have been ! The fact that we have had no attacks since 9/11 is "no accident" according to VP Cheney, but is due to the "sound policies" of the Bush Administration.

It is theoretically possible that the same administration that has got it wrong on Afghanistan, Iraq, the budget deficit, Katrina, global warming, CIA-agent-outing, illegal-on-American-spying, prisoner torturing and etc., somehow got it right on domestic security.

And there is another explanation, provided in fascinating detail by John Mueller writing in the current Foreign Affairs. The true explanation may well be simpler. There were and are no Al Qaeda sleeper cells in the Homeland.

In an admirably through article Mueller examines the evidence and the arguments regarding our safety from attack since 9/11, as other cities and countries have suffered devastating bombings, e.g., London and Madrid.

Though not directly responding to Cheney's argument cited above, Mueller does address the point with a simple observation:

"But there is a problem with this argument. True, there have been no terrorist incidents in the United States in the last five years. But nor were there any in the five years before the 9/11 attacks, at a time when the United States was doing much less to protect itself."

So maybe we haven't been attacked because no sleeper cells were in place, no cells have been infiltrated across our notoriously porous borders and we lack the extremist Islamic elements that give rise to attacks elsewhere.

We urge you to read this piece and we urge you to

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