the war on terror

haven't done much real ranting lately - but mitt romney's idiotic statements when he announced his withdrawal from the presidential race have really got me going.  this constant babble about  "the war on terrorism" (and now ever worse - the war on terror.  so now the republicans are going to defend us against horror movies and nightmares, as well?) - anyway, it's really beginning to annoy me.  the phraseology convinces me that the republicans really have no clue what they are talking about.  terrorism isn't a government, it isn't even an ideology - it's a tactic, and it's been used by everyone from the ku klux clan to the shining path guerillas.  you can't have a war on a tactic than anyone can (and does) use. if you really want to stop terrorism, you have to understand who is committing the terrorist actions, and what, exactly, they are fighting for.  the republican insistence on lumping everything together under the grab-bag of "terrorist" convinces me that they really don't understand who we are fighting, or what those people are so mad about.  they don't seem to get that iraq has both sunnis and shiites conducting vicious warfare - and that these two groups have very different ideas and objectives.  iran and al qaeda may both have islamic fundamentalists - but they are very different schools of fundamentalism.

well, rats - it's so frustrating, i can't even think of a good rant.  according to the new york times, the army, at least, has started to figure out that you have to have a clue about what's going on at the ground level - and that building places like iraq up again is at least as important as tearing them down.