9-11 flip side

[The Brain]

Originally posted by KensPen
I don't think we got any \"bang for the buck\" on the billions we have spent fighting terror.

2/3 of the Al-Qaeda leadership have been either killed or captured, and Osama bin Laden is hiding in a 40-square mile area of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

Saddam Hussein is hiding, and his two sons are dead.

There are almost <a href=http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2003/06/17062003155935.asp target=new>constant protests occurring in Iran against the resident regime there</a>.

Change is coming, and <i>that</i> was the main reason for the war on terror. Yes, it's also to kick someone's ass who done us wrong, but it's also to institute change in those extremist regions so that this sort of shit won't ever happen again.

Of course it will be slower than we want-- we're so used to everything happening rapidly around here. It won't be easy bringing a religion and people with 8^th-Century ideals kicking and screaming into a 21^st-Century world.

Think about why after the Hussein regime collapsed, militants poured in across the borders and started a shooting gallery on our troops. You know what would occur if they had left us to do our work, stabilize the country... and instilled <i>democracy</i>? This is a region of monarchies and theocratic dictatorships; democracy of any form would be a powder keg that destroys all of them.