It's The Occupation Stupid!

Though I don't agree with most of Pat Buchanan's ultra conservative views, he is not a neo-con and I agree with much of his assessment of the war and the massive mess we have made in Iraq.

"Few Americans have given more thought to the motivation of suicide bombers than Robert Pape, author of Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism. His book is drawn from an immense database on every suicide-bomb attack from 1980 to early 2004. Conclusion: The claim that 9/11 and the suicide bombings in Iraq are done to advance some jihad by 'Islamofascists' against the West is not only unsubstantiated, it is hollow.

'Islamic fundamentalism is not as closely associated with suicide terrorism as many people think,' Pape tells The American Conservative in its July 18 issue. Indeed, the world's leader in suicide terror was the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka. This secular Marxist group 'invented the famous suicide vest for their suicide assassination of Rajiv Ghandi in May 1991. The Palestinians got the idea of the vest from the Tamil Tigers.'

But if the aim of suicide bombers is not to advance Islamism in a war of civilizations, what is its purpose? Pape's conclusion:

'[S]uicide-terrorist attacks are not so much driven by religion as by a clear strategic objective: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from the territory that the terrorists view as their homeland. From Lebanon to Sri Lanka to Chechnya to Kashmir to the West Bank, every major suicide terrorist campaign - over 95 percent of all incidents -– has had as its central objective to compel a democratic state to withdraw.'

The 9/11 terrorists were over here because we were over there. They are not trying to convert us. They are killing us to drive us out of their countries."
[...]
What Pape is saying is that the neocons' "World War IV" -– our invading Islamic countries to overthrow regimes and convert them into democracies - is suicidal, like stomping on an anthill so as not to be bitten by ants. It is the presence of U.S. troops in Islamic lands that is the progenitor of suicide terrorism.

Bush's cure for terrorism is a cause of the epidemic. The doctor is spreading the disease. The longer we stay in Iraq, the greater the number of suicide attacks we can expect. The sooner we get our troops out, the sooner terrorism over there and over here will end. So Pape says the data proves. This is the precise opposite of what George Bush argues and believes.

The most frustrating part of this all is the absolute refusal of Bushco to listen to anyone with alternative opinions - despite the carnage that is increasing on a daily basis. This is a man whose track record, with almost everything he has touched, is one of mediocrity or failure. This time, he made a grave mistake that is impacting the entire world. Admitting failure or mistakes with this, however, would prove to the entire globe, once and for all, that he is now and always has been a loser and I think he'd rather see the whole world go down in flames before acknowledging that.