There’s an odd conversation going on talk radio this morning. Charlie Sykes, in Milwaukee, posed the question about who the “real winner” was in Spain’s ouster of a pro-Iraq war government. Caller after caller (the good people of Milwaukee are known for their foreign policy expertise) said that al Qaida was the big winner. They then transitioned into a discussion about the Iraq war and how we overthrew Saddam and improved life in the Middle East. Completely lost is the well-established fact that al Qaida and Iraq are not related! We might as well be talking al Qaida and North Korea or al Qaida and France. If the Bushies actually focused on winning the war on terrorism (to the tune more than $100 billion), rather than settling poppy’s old scores, maybe we would have made the world a safer place. As it is, we’ve used a Third-World nation as a bombing field (Afghanistan) and thrown out an impotent prima donna who, sadly, presided over one of the most stable governments in the Middle East.
The kicker to the whole discussion is people openly wondering how the U.S. would respond to a terrorist attack right before the election. Lots of people are saying they would lineup behind el presidente — there’s a scary thought with Bush trailing in the polls.