Losing the War on Terror

Militants set off two car bombs and fought police in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The "war on terror" was supposed to put a stop to stuff like this. Instead, such attacks are increasing.

A small side effect was a bump in the price of crude oil in commodity markets--imagine that.

In May, Saudi militants attacked oil company compounds in Khobar, 250 miles (400 kilometers) northeast of Riyadh, and killed 22 people, 19 of them foreigners. Earlier the same month, attackers stormed the offices of an American company in Yanbu, 350 kilometers (220 miles) north of Jiddah, killing six Westerners and a Saudi. All four attackers died in a shootout after a police chase in which they dragged the body of an American from the bumper of their car.

On April 21, five people, including two senior police officers and an 11-year-old girl, were killed along with the suicide bomber in an attack on a government building in Riyadh.

In November 2003 a suicide bombing at a Riyadh housing compound killed 17 people, most of them Muslims working in Saudi Arabia.

At a certain point, "staying the course" is an exercise in lunacy--like say, if "the course" is headed straight for a cliff. Unfortunately, too many foks apparently lack the ability--or wherewithall--to understand this, hence, Bush's win at the polls last November. I suppose this isn't too surprising: for instance, I doubt seriously a majority of US citizens could accurately point out ANY Middle Eastern country on a map. But, just as ignorance of the law is no excuse, ignorance of the consequences of your country's actions can likewise come back to bite real hard.

A while back I wrote something like "when you hand your car keys to a drunk, don't be surprised if your car gets wrecked." The more I look at the effects of the Bush foreign policy, the more it becomes apparent that we didn't just hand the car keys to a drunk--we made sure the gun rack had loaded weapons, too.