We Should Have Been Smarter...

Submitted by Dan Friedman (United States), Sep 12, 2005 at 17:20

There was a middle ground. 9/11 was as good a pretext as any for the US to act unilaterally anywhere it saw a threat - including Iraq. And it could have done so using stepped up intelligence activities and intense stand-off weapons fire (Cruise missiles, stealth bombers, Special Ops, etc.) wherever intelligence indicated it was warranted. That could have neutralized dictators like Hussein, kept Al Qaeda on the run, widened the scope of the terror war into Southeast Asia and been politically less costly across the board. But as usual the Grand Illusions, like a desert mirage, proved too tempting.

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