Writes Ross in his recent column re 9/11 versus present times, regarding our disastrously unnecessary and grotesquely mismanaged invasions of both Iraq and Afghanistan,
In each of these case [the two invasions], the achievement of something relatively basic — preventing terrorist groups from existing in the kind of comfort required to pull off another Sept. 11 — required much more maximalist strategies than, say, the Clinton administration undertook in the 1990s. Reportedly that kind of cruise-missile minimalism is what bin Laden expected from America after Sept. 11 as well. And not only was it a good thing we didn’t give to him; we couldn’t really have avoided escalation. A restraint that allowed for frequent repetitions of Al Qaeda’s 2001 triumph — for mass-casualty terrorism as a consistent fact of American life — would have been politically untenable and would have eventually yielded an even more disproportionate response.
“Reportedly”, Ross? “Reportedly”? By whom? Dick Cheney? Rush Limbaugh? Newt Gingrich? Yes, 9/11 happened because Bill Clinton was a pussy. You disgust me, Ross Douthat. You disgust me.
Did Iran instigate the recent Israel-Palestinian conflict as MAD “zero-sum” terror? How much longer until the majority of Persian people express moderate theocratic freedoms?