The True Face of Terrorism

Some good pieces on terrorism today on TPMCafe, including this (title above):

For all the talk of Iraq being the central front in the war of terrorism, we learned again this morning that the real central front is everywhere. Terrorists can and will strike at a time and place of their choosing. That is the essential nature of this threat that the Bush administration has ignored at its -- and our -- peril.

From the very first moment following the 9/11 attacks, it was clear that the Bush administration operated on a flawed understanding of the terrorist threat we now faced. To it, a threat of this magnitude could come about only if states provided the essential support, which is why the administration focused less on combating the terrorists than on going after state sponsors -- first Afghanistan, then Iraq. Had Iraq not become a mess, Syria and Iran would have followed.

That is what Bush meant by the global war on terror: "We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them," Bush declared on 9/11/01. Two days later, Paul Wolfowitz argued that the war would focus on "ending states who sponsor terrorism." And as Wolfowitz deputy, Doug Feith, later told the New Yorker, "the principal strategic thoughts underlying our strategy in the war on terrorism is the importance of the connection between terrorist organizations and their state sponsors."