3 Bomb Blasts Each: London, Delhi, Jordan

Delhi Bomb Blasts

The Al Qaeda fights a war of asymmetry. And it likes to leave its signature at the crime scene. There is talk the work in London was a few disenchanted homegrown youths, that the work in Delhi was just a few Kashmiri separatists. I for one don't buy into those explanations.

The pattern is too obviuos. Three blasts in close coordination to each other.

And they like the element of surprise. London was unexpected. Delhi was unexpected. Jordan was not exactly considered a target country.

The bad news seems to be the Al Qaeda is very much alive. That is what I read.

Saddam was a jerk and I am glad he is gone. And I am all about spreading democracy. But with $200 billion you could spread democracy into literally every country on the planet, if you do it the progressive way.

But America did not go into Iraq for democracy or for Saddam. America went in to fight the War on Terror. If so, why is the Al Qaeda still so strong?

When bird flu surfaces, you throw smallpox medicine at it, because that is all you have in the stocks. That is what Bush did. He waged his War On Terror like the Al Qaeda were a standing army. Big mistake.

The Al Qaeda is not a standing army. And it prefers to fight the war of fundamental asymmetry.
The number one emphasis should be to infiltrate the Al Qaeda. Human intelligence will do the work. Fancy satellites can not do it. Perhaps throw in a few thousand Arab-looking, Arab-speaking spies amidst their ranks. Penetrate.

Getting Osama is still key. Bush talks like it does not matter if Osama is still at large or not. The point is not only is he still at large, but that guy seems to be able to strike with eery regularity. Bush sounds too eager to congratulate himself on a victory he never achieved.

But all military counter strikes will do no good if there is no fundamental strategy to ensure a total spread of democracy in the Arab world. There is a reason why most of the 9/11 strikers were from the Saudi Arabia. Democracy is so totally absent in that country, all its oil wealth does not seem to be able to channel its people's energies to productive use.

And after the Arab world, China inevitably crops up on the map. There I think the best strategy might be to (1) engage China to the max economically and diplomatically, and (2) try and arrange a soft landing for the Chinese Communist Party such that they remain the largest party within a multi-party framework. But there is no avoiding China. If you bungle, you are looking at the threat of a possible hot war. That is a huge no-no.

America fought World War II against the fascists and the Nazis and democracy got spread in Europe and Japan. America fought the Cold War and democracy got spread in the Russia and that bloc. Now the War on Terror is about spreading democracy in the Arab world.

You can wait until you get hit. Or you can proactively spread democracy, wage a non stop war with communications technology and minimize casualties.

The Al Qaeda is very much at work. That is the bad news. The worse news is Bush and his cronies do not comprehend the virus, and are not even attempting to come up with a new antibiotic. They talk tough but deliver not.