Steven Den Beste has wrtten a fantastic overview of our stragegy in the war on Islamic terrorism. All arguments about the war, whether pro, con, strategy, tactics or other should begin with this overview as a primary reference document. It is that good, IMHO. What Steven left out:
1. This war, like the Cold War, is being fought economically as well. A worldwide depression (caused by a major disruption to the world's oil supply, for example) could cause the war to escalate, and lots of people would get killed. (Most of them would not be Americans, unless it went nuclear.) I am surprised Steven left this out, since he covers it extensively. This may require deficit spending (shudder).
2. We were already killing people and spending a lot of money in our twelve year low-level war against Saddam. Now the money and the deaths will not just be maintaining a horrible status-quo, but we might actually be able to do some good.
3. This war would have been fought anyway, whether or not America brought the fight back to the Middle East.
Update 4. PrometheusSpeaks points out that Saddam may be more likely to give terrorists WMD if he thinks he will be deposed or killed.
