The Suvey Says....

Iraq's interior ministry spokesman said Saturday that seventy-five percent of al-Qaida in Iraq's terrorist network had been destroyed this year. Kudos to the forces that have worked so tirelessly to eliminate this scourge. And what of the other twenty-five percent? I'm sorry, but I'm one of those "glass half-empty" guys. You've really got to have some sort of good plan for dealing with the quarter of the terrorists that have been carelessly glossed over to really impress me.
In this way, terrorists are a lot like cockroaches. Left alone, how long will it take for al-Qaida to swarm in multitudes once again? The U.S. military says violence is down sixty percent nationwide, demonstrating success in fighting the terrorist network. Again, what about that other forty percent? How do we rationalize the forty percent of the people killed by twenty-five percent of the terrorists left in a country where forty-eight percent of the people would rather not have all this "help".
Because that's the bottom line, isn't it? Al-Qaida is hanging around Iraq primarily for the opportunity to destabilize things. As long as U.S. troops are there to push against, they have something to gain. They aren't going away. In the meantime, they can just hop over the border and make a mess of things in Pakistan, where they have set a whole country on fire with the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. All one needs to do is turn on the lights and watch them scatter. What to do then? When I lived in an apartment that had a roach problem, I worked tirelessly with various sprays and traps until I reached the only logical conclusion: Move out. Let the roaches have the place. Surrender to the vermin by exercising the choice not to fight. I predict that we would end up with thirty-five percent less chaos.