For the first time in my recollection, the Libertarian candidate has actually praised a sitting president:
Mark 9/11 Anniversary by Targeting Terrorists Overseas While Respecting Liberties at Home, Says Bob Barr“Seven years have passed since the horrid terrorist attacks of 9/11," says Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party nominee for President. "The U.S. government can best mark the anniversary by continuing to target groups which threaten Americans, but also by respecting the liberties upon which our nation is based."
“The Bush administration deserves credit for having done much to disable al Qaeda as an effective terrorist organization,” Barr says.
Wow. To think, Bob Barr actually has some nice things to say about what Bush has been doing.
Says some things I couldn't agree with more, and then shows the tragic misunderstanding of what is going on in WWIII, common to my brothers and sisters in the Libertarian Party and most Democrats and Republicans as well:
“However, early on, the administration took its eye off of the ball when it shifted troops from searching for Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan to use in the unnecessary war in Iraq. Now, the situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating badly,” adds Barr.
“Moreover, the Bush administration engaged in a sustained attack on the liberty and privacy of Americans in the name of combating terrorism. It drafted the Patriot Act, which provided the federal government with powers well beyond those necessary to confront potential terrorists, and it initiated an illegal surveillance program of telephone calls and emails, ignoring both the Constitution and the law,” Barr explains.
His first mistake is that Iraq is not a war, it is a theater. Afghanistan is not a war, it is a theater. The Phillipines is not a war, it is a theater.
In WWII we did not call it the German War and the Japanese War, except to describe them as theaters in a global conflict against fascist/Imperial allies and powers. Germany never attacked us, yet we attacked them because they were allied with Japan.
That world war involved real nations that had a formal alliance. It was different from this world war of unofficial alliances, with rivalries within those alliances. What 9/11 signified was one attack, out of many attacks previously made, of the Global Jihad, a loose alliance of an ideology of Islamic theocracy.
Terrorism is one of many tactics this alliance is willing to use; and some of the groups and countries involved include but are and were not limited to Al-Qaeda, Iran, Iraq, The Wahhabi regime in Saudi Arabia, Libya, Abu Sayyaf, in the far east, Hammas, Hezbollah, and others. Some pretend to be our friends yet work against us, some our outright against us, and some have shifted along the way (Libya).
This is an extremely complicated war, but it is most definitely a world war. Make no mistake -- the enemy we have here is just as dedicated and far more dangerous than the Nazi regime of Germany or the Imperial regime of Japan -- they feel they have God behind them, have been at this far longer, and have much more money behind them.
9/11 was nothing more than a wake-up call to a war that Iran declared against us in 1979. That Bin Laden's faction declared some time later; that Saddam declared allegiance to many times, as has Hammas Hezbollah and the rest mentioned. the plan: destroy us or make us submit to Sharia, make their own "Muslim Lands" do the same until the world is ruled by competing muslim regimes, until which time they will fight among themselves until the caliphate is established.
This is what they have stated time and again. I would suggest my fellow lovers of liberty to study this. I'd suggest starting with their own words, which can be found in a nice, simple primer like the
Al Qaeda Reader by Raymond IbrahimNow, was Iraq the best place to move against this elusive enemy? Perhaps not, but viewing it as a separate war gets the whole shebang bloody wrong. Perhaps we should have moved against Iran first; but in some ways, creating a free fly zone over Iraq for Israel, and a free fly zone over Afghanistan for us, Pakistan and India might just be the ticket, given the situation in Iran.
Barr was however right on target with our own rights at home. We ARE in a World War, but we MUST not forget what we are fighting for, and extreme care must be given NOT to give into either an Imperial presidency OR a loss of liberty for our citizens.
The Patriot Act is NOT what has "kept us safe" (we may never be safe), but attacking the enemy has kept them off balance, and THAT has been the main factor preventing any attacks at home. The fact that we retaliated so boldly caused them to reassess their strategy, which is what they have been doing these last seven years.
We ought to repeal or revisit the Patriot Act, but at the same time, get on with and continue the defeat of the Global Jihad. The idea is to defeat the enemy, NOT ourselves. But the enemy is REAL and we must see that.
This is why I have a hard time supporting ANY of the political parties this year. The Democrats want to take away our freedom, and lose the war. The Republicans want to win the war, but seem all too willing to take away our freedom. The Libertarians are in denial.
What would Cap do? Damned if I know.
