Long before 9/11/01 Bin Laden and his AQ camps should have targeted and destroyed by US special warfare teams. The US had ample justification to do this after the African embassy bombings and the Cole attack.

Muscle flexed and problem (at least tempoarily) solved.

Clinton was a wimp and Bush was asleep at the helm.

Then Bush failed again by not doing what was militarily necessary to prevent Bin Laden’s escape.

Now we are mostly mired in the trap of ignoring sunk costs. The military and politicians are famous for this sort of unenlightened thinking. You know….we can’t fail now because we have invested so much…Mostly the rest – converting the heathens, white man’s burden, etc – is just window dressing.

The experienced among those charged with defending the US know that there will ALWAYS be someone out there willing to become an active enemy of the US; whether that be AQ rearing its ugly head in another part of the world or some other faction with perhaps a similar – or unique – motivation.

Early identification and then neutralization as situations develop is the name of the real game. Peace is only temporary at best.

It is sad to see Obama acting like just another neocon utopianist. And I think it all gets back to the simple fear of political ramifications of calling sunk costs for what they are.

I suppose that in medieval Europe there were plenty of otherwise thoughtful people who were quite convinced that the state was engaged in a war against witchcraft, who knows? Then as now, there are few things easier than to indoctrinate human beings.

Certainly I am convinced that if there is one fear our leaders need never have, it is the worry that the lower social orders will ever have thoughts that place meaningful obstacles on the path to violence.