CNN - ''We have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they're a nuisance,'' the article states as the Massachusetts senator's reply.
''As a former law enforcement person, I know we're never going to end prostitution. We're never going to end illegal gambling. But we're going to reduce it, organized crime, to a level where it isn't on the rise. It isn't threatening people's lives every day, and fundamentally, it's something that you continue to fight, but it's not threatening the fabric of your life.''
I'm not sure I could ever consider terrorism to be a nuisance on par with prostitution or illegal gambling. Sure that's crime, but nobody's dying for it. Maybe organized crime kills people now and then to keep the hookers on the streets and the illegal gaming parlors going, but its nowhere near 9/11 proportions. In fact, if I had to choose one of the two, I'd take gambling and hookers over decapitations and suicide bombers any day of the week.
But Kerry doesn't seem to get this. Terrorism is not something that can be "policed" away. Terrorism is something that must be defeated. And to do that we have to do two things:
- Kill the terrorists .
- Go to where the terrorists live and show the people who live there what its like to live freely.
Those aren't things you're going to accomplish with police-like actions.
Update:
James Lileks weighs in:
Mosquito bites are a nuisance. Cable outages are a nuisance. Someone shooting up a school in Montana or California or Maine on behalf of the brave martyrs of Fallujah isn't a nuisance. It's war.
But that's not the key phrase. This matters: We have to get back to the place we were.
But when we were there we were blind. When we were there we losing. When we were there we died. We have to get back to the place we were. We have to get back to 9/10? We have to get back to the place we were. So we can go through it all again? We have to get back to the place we were. And forget all we've learned and done? We have to get back to the place we were. No. I don't want to go back there. Planes into towers. That changed the terms. I am remarkably disinterested in returning to a place where such things are unimaginable. Where our nighmares are their dreams.
We have to get back to the place we were.
No. We have to go the place where they are.
My sentiments exactly.