Re: Op Eds Now More Central in War than Bullets

Submitted by Mendl Malkin (Canada), Oct 17, 2006 at 16:00

Good article on a very important topic that has not received as much attention as it should. Israel is only beginning to awaken to the importance of the Media War being waged against it. President Bush does not yet seem to be engaged on this front.

One quibble though...you say "This change means that what the U.S. military calls "bean counting" – counting soldiers and weapons – is now nearly immaterial, as are diagnoses of the economy or control of territory". In fact, the war against Islamic fundamentalism is being fought on many non-traditional fronts, and one of them is economic. One of the things Bin Laden hoped to do on Sept. 11, 2001 was to destroy the American economy.

My own fear is that with the American budget deficit so large, and with so much American money in foreign hands, it might be possible for our enemies to start a run on the dollar and seriously debase the currency. Keeping the US engaged in a distant war costing hundreds of billions of dollars a year, expanding the physical war front, all of these things represent a war of attrition against the currency, which could still lead to disastrous consequences, negatively affecting the US's ability to wage physical war. Getting the budget balanced is also a strategic necessity to win this war.

Keep up the good work,

Mendl Malkin

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