John Kerry was right. Not that it matters

I realize that there are alot of bad folks out there in the world, and I realize that our relative prosperity, our enviable position as the world's only true superpower, and the unfortunate foreign policy that we've adopted since 2001 (which has turned us into a global pariah) clearly puts us at risk for desperate acts by desperate people.

That said, each and every one of these "massive plots" that have been discovered quickly turns out to be a keystone cop caper that unravels upon the slightest investigation. Arthur Silber writes about "the latest Threat to Destroy All the Universes Forever and Ever":

Among the numerous futile and profoundly counterproductive effects of the manner in which the Forces of Good and Light have chosen to conduct the Global Battle against Evil and All Bad and Nasty Thingies, perhaps the most offensive are what we might categorize as the assaults on minimally decent aesthetics. Every time another of these all too predictable events occurs, I feel as if I'm watching a movie from five or six decades ago, a film that was crudely imitative, fourth-hand trash the first time and that only gets worse and cruder with each repetition.

No real ammunition. No real targets. But be afraid, be very afraid.

Remember this?:

At a nationally televised debate on January 29, Massachusetts senator John F. Kerry delivered the jaw-dropping assessment that the threat of terrorism had been "exaggerated" by the Bush administration. Terrorism, he asserted, was "primarily an intelligence and law enforcement operation that requires cooperation around the world — the very thing this [Bush] administration is worst at."

Greenwald, a bit too optimistically pointed this out, after the London bombings were thwarted:

If George Will can come out and say that John Kerry was right about how best to approach terrorism and the Bush approach does nothing but increases it, then perhaps we can soon reach the point where national journalists will understand that there is nothing "strong" about wanting more and more wars, and nothing "weak" about opposing warmongering and advocating more substantive, rational and responsible methods for combating terrorism.

I think, for once, Glen Greenwald put too much faith in the press and the administration. Take it away, David Lindorff:

While there is nothing to be done about the disaster in Iraq, which will go down in military history as one of the great defeats of all time-the most powerful military the world has ever known beaten by a disorganized assortment of ill-trained and ill-equipped guerrilla fighters-this is nonetheless a dangerous moment.

Wounded animals are dangerous animals, and President Bush and his gang of Neocon wackoes, badly wounded by defeat in Iraq, are not anxious to slither off the political stage as losers. Hence the plans in the works to go double or nothing with an all-out aerial assault on Iran.

Numerous reports, including most credibly one in The Times in London (owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.), suggest that a plan has already been laid out for a three-day massive bombardment on over 1200 targets in Iran, which would attempt to destroy not just that country's nascent nuclear processing capability, but also its government, communications, and military facilities, essentially leaving the country of 70 million a smoking ruin.