You can’t foll all of ’em all of the time. American are wising up on Iraq and terrorism.
… in formulating his famous Principle of Finite Gullibility. On the question of whether the War in Iraq is a major part of the War on Terror, it turns out that you can fool at most 32% of the people all of the time.
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
View all posts by Mark Kleiman
I can't get to excited about a bare 51% recognizing the absence of a connection between Iraq and the "War on Terror". Now, if 51% offered the opinion that the whole concept of a war on a tactic was foolish, that would cheer me a little, but only a little.
The Right is nothing if not emphatic in its assertions, and most people will just naturally hesitate to believe that any assertion, delivered with sufficient self-assertion or passion, does not "contain a grain of truth". And, most people will hesitate to believe their leaders are incompetent and untrustworthy; psychologically, it is akin to believing your mother cannot be trusted.
I will agree that this struggle should not be called the War on Terrorism. It should be called the war on Islamic fanaticism. These loonies intend to either kill or convert us and the sooner you lefties wake up to that reality the better. Billy Joe Bob Clinton's "Head in the sand" approach to handling the blackhawk down situation in Somalia, as well as every other terrorist act against American interests, sent a message to Bin Laden that America is a bunch of pussies who cannot handle a little bloodshed. I think it is very clear that the conflict in Somalia emboldened the islamists and gave them a strategy for defeating America. Namely, wait until the loony American left attempts to turn every military situation into Vietnam. Similarly, a cut-and-run strategy in Iraq would send exactly the same message to the islamists. That is why there is clearly a connection. This is a global struggle between 7th century minded islamic fanatics who cannot be dealt with rationally and the irrational countries that support them on one side and the U.S., U.K., and Australia on the other side. The whole middle east is going to have to be changed at some point either through bringing representative governance or by bombing the region to kingdom come, except for the oil fields, of course. Iraq was just the first country on the hit list. Iran and Syria will be next. If we ever start tapping our own oil resources, Saudi Arabia will come after that. This is going to be a very long and difficult military struggle, but it is one we must engage in if America is to survive the greatest threat of my generation.