The Flypaper Theory

You know, the so-called "Flypaper Theory" (popularized as "We must fight them there so we don't fight them here!"), has been debunked so many times that it's frightening that the right wing continues to bring it up as a justification.

Today's news, however, brings something into focus for me as regards that theory, and points out yet another reason it's idiotic to fight a land war in South Asia.

Suicide bombers kill 27 at Iraq police academy

The first explosion occurred as police cadets headed to lunch after shooting practice, said Nizal Mahmoud Khalaf, a police trainee who survived the blasts. The second bomber struck as the cadets ran for shelter, he told Reuters outside a hospital where the wounded were treated.

The U.S. military, who initially said the bombers walked into a classroom and blew themselves up, later said one of the bombers struck near a group of students outside a classroom.

Thinking the explosion was an attack from outside, Iraqi police officers and students ran to a bunker for shelter, where the second bomber detonated his vest strapped with explosives, the military said.

Lately, the targets of insurgent attacks (which modestly abated after the offensive near the Syrian border, but have roared back anew) have been Iraqis who are full-out cooperating with American efforts to re-arm the military and re-establish a police force.

So the question becomes, why?

Given Bush's intransigence regarding removing an American presence in the country, one begins to see that the Flypaper Theory has actually worked in reverse: by placing troops over there, we've lightened the burden enormously for Al Qaeda and other terror organizations to accomplish what they swore to do in jihad: kill Americans.

Too, we've sent them the cream of the crop: our youngest, most ambitious kids, not even career Army but the kids who joined the Guard and Reserves in order to get a college education and a signing bonus.

Entire generations of families will be snuffed out as this war there continues, and the Islamists lick their chops every morning that our ineffective and ineffectual response remains tied into a military dominance strategy relying heavily on getting the natives armed for conflict (yea, there's a good idea...as if guns here haven't proven deadly enough...) and then bugging out.

There has to be a solution, unfortunately the sole body capable of enforcing that solution, the United Nations, has been both asked to, and on it's own accord, wash its hands of this business.

So what to do?

Tags: Flypaper Theory, Iraq War, Terrorism, Bush

tags technorati : Top 50