Dumb terrorists.

Yikes.

As I've noted, the terrorists aren't terribly bright, but they're very persistent and they learn from their mistakes. That makes them a potent threat.

It's historically a bad idea to underestimate the intelligence of your enemy. All terrorists aren't stupid, and it's stupid to suggest that's the case. Also, their ability to learn from their mistakes (which, um, some people might call "intelligence") is only one reason they are a "potent threat."

The more significant reason they're a threat is that they're fiercely driven by a twisted, religious ideology which neither respects life nor is unmoved by material gain. Pretty much impossible to stop someone who's willing to trade their life to take several of your people with him.

And that's why fighting them with messy, large scale, ill-conceived military operations (Iraq, Lebanon) is doomed to fail.

Putz gets to that part, surprisingly, with this:

I suspect, though, that the only real solution is to go after the backers -- mullahs and rich guys in Iran and Saudi Arabia, mostly -- and not just keep arresting the cannon fodder. I don't see any signs of that sort of approach, though.

So what the hell are we doing in Iraq? And if there are no signs of "that sort of approach", then surely the War on Terror(TM) is being seriously mismanaged and President Bush and the Repubicans should be criticized for that, right?

(Crickets.)