Junto Boys

MAD LIBS

The thing I like best about terrorist-takedown reportage is the before and after shot. It is the classic mug-shot mien. Hair mussed, clothes rumpled, downcast — nothing remotely heroic about it.

The message is that we are winning. We're winning well. That stated, al Qaeda remains a threat because, despite all the hardships they face, many of these people refuse to give up. Most of them are ideologically motivated and committed sociopaths. They have a need to kill. Our civilization and their organization cannot coexist in this world — they will be the first to admit it. So the Coalition is forced to wage war on them, to track them down, capture, or kill them, one by one. It takes time, but gradually the job is getting done.

The daily life of an al Qaeda leader is an endurance test for survival. They spend their time moving from safe house to safe house, in constant fear of discovery, attempting vainly to organize large-scale attacks on their enemies and speculating when they will be betrayed by their friends. It is not a rewarding existence, not even by terrorist standards. This cannot be the jihad they signed up for. Even the most committed among them may be wondering when Osama's master plan is going to kick in and they will start winning a few rounds.

Al Qaeda's failure to achieve any of its strategic goals or to conduct operations against the U.S. homeland is discouraging to some of its members. Recently Abu Musab al-Zarqawi complained about the lack of "willing martyrs" for attacks on the United States. Several days ago, U.S. Central Command posted a letter to Zarqawi from one of his underlings that revealed low morale and lack of trust within his organization. Zarqawi is not exactly safe either; he recently narrowly evaded capture during a hot pursuit by bailing out of a pickup truck under a highway underpass. Coalition forces captured his laptop and a trove of documents. Now he being reported allegedly wounded, or maybe sick, frequenting a hospital apparently for treatment. His insurgency controls no territory, and apart from being able to inflict some casualties, Zarqawi does not seem to be making much progress in his area of responsibility.

The war on terror has been tremendously successful. Two regimes deposed, Iraqis voted, and a popularly elected goverment is being installed, all in a few years' time, which by historical standards is absolutely incredible. But liberals can't get past their own simplistic stereotypes.

Do you really think the president is sheltered from those he’s pitching his plan to?

Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA): The only actual news that he reads is the sports section. All the national news, all the opinions that he gets have been filtered, and it goes to his daily briefing that has already been pre-screened to give him what he wants to read. He doesn’t read any books, and he doesn’t talk with people that don’t already agree with him. He’s surrounded himself with ideological sycophants. And the biggest ass-kisser of all is Dick Cheney.

I am still not hearing anything from the minority party that sounds like a reason to elect some of them to Congress in 2006. The UT incident with Ann Coulter is just the latest example of libs with nothing to say just saying it louder. Forget civility, that's gone, I'd just like to hear one coherent argument from one liberal. I'm reasonable - just one. No screaming, no arm waving, no ranting, no insults, no pies, just one coherent argument, in complete sentences, on any subject.