No one seems to be writing opinion pieces quite the way I would, so I decided to do it myself.

The name? Taverns are places where one goes to discuss the interesting events and things in the world, so this is my tavern.

I will offer my views on politics, economics, and whatever else strikes my fancy.
I will occasionally publish the entire article from another journal for purposes of causing discussion.

 

Barry McCaffrey on the Results of the Iraq War

Retired General Barry McCaffrey is of the opinion that we are much safer from terrorism now after the Iraq War and Afghanistan. He bases this on the the idea that there were seven states who supported terrorism, two of which were Afghanistan and Iraq. Now there are five, and four of those [excluding North Korea] are led by rational men.

His position is reasonable and he has the background that makes his opinion worthy of consideration.

Scott Baldauf of the Christian Science Monitor provides a story entitled "Inside a Taliban terrorism class" which relates to McCaffrey's views. He describes how the Taliban were training terrorists to use against their enemies, and shows that the one that he interviewed is ready to continue the fight, if he can get the resources. Baldauf suggests that the increasing number of terrorist attacks recently in Afghanistan are the result of the many trained terrorists already there, and they are now becoming reorganized so that they can continue the fight.

McCaffrey is talking about State-sponsored terrorism, suggesting that our attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq will reduce that source of terrorist activity. Baldauf seems to be looking at the number of already trained terrorists out there, suggesting that as they get reorganized they are increasing their terrorist activity.

It seems to me that both could be correct. The individual trained terrorists could be increasing their activity in the short run, but when they are caught, killed or quit there are unlikely to be state-sponsored terrorist training programs providing new terrorists.

In any case, we are presently living in interesting times.

[Yes, I am referring to the Chinese curse.]
posted by Richard at 3:23 PM