Turkey Pigeons

What a time it was back then when there were quite a bit fewer states, and each one wielded a great deal of power, and the President was only slightly more powerful than Kofi Annan. Before most of our major conflicts, the President would have to appear hat in hand before congress and ask permission to bomb the living bejesus out of Japan after a sneak attack. There were exceptions. This Union has managed to wage undeclared war before. Just ask the Native Americans.

Today, the President of the United States of America can pretty much wage war whenever he wants, without the approval of anyone except the guys telling him what to do. He can wage war in Southeast Asia (twice). He can wage war in Iraq (twice). He can wage war against drugs (“Drugs Win War on Drugs” – The Onion).

Which brings us to the War on Terror. It’s actually a pretty scary war. You can almost read the headline a couple decades from now – Terror Wins War on Terror – and it won’t be in the Onion. Its main front is in Afghanistan. Some folks think it has a second front in Iraq. Maybe they’re right, but I hope not. The history of success for wars waged on two fronts is not very good.

Problem with the War on Terror is that it legitimized terrorism. There have always been fringe radical nuts in the world. Plenty in this here Union. There used to be more, right before the Oklahoma City bombing. Those groups declined shortly thereafter, primarily because the serious nuts were being ratted out by the semi-soft nuts. Talking about the overthrow of the government was not the same as blowing up babies.

The Union did the proper thing – they took the moral high ground and approached the fringe, saying they respect the right to be a complete loon, but help us out with the loon with the bomb. It worked. Not perfectly – there still are some neo-nuts out there – but enough to scale back potential damage.

What the Union did NOT do was declare war on all the fringe groups. What they did NOT do was declare war on Kansas (where Timothy McVeigh was living) or Republicans (McVeigh’s party). They used McVeigh to discourage other acts of terror.

In the case of Osama Bin Laden, however, the “President” of this Union declared war on all terrorists. Everybody. NOT limited to Osama. NOT limited to Al Qaeda. NOT even limited to Afghanistan, the country providing sanctuary to Al Qaeda.

ALL terrorists.

Which immediately elevated each and every one of them into revolutionary status. We gave them a common enemy. From their perspective, it went from “I hate those guys” to “I’m at war with those guys” to “We’re at war with those guys.”

This “President” unified and galvanized all the fringe groups in a way no one before him could. More than that, he’s giving voice to legitimate world opposition to this country. At the recent Nonaligned Movement summit in Havana, world leaders such as Hugo Chavez, Raul Castro, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and others are speaking out against this Union. In other words, they’re becoming ALIGNED.

The good news is that all these guys USED to be members of the radical fringe right in THEIR countries. Now they’re the establishment. Pretty soon they’ll start to have to watch out for THEIR OWN NUTS. Which gives us time to start a war we can win.

The War on Pigeons.