Monday, September 08, 2008

The Orkin Man

The Republicans treat terrorism like it's an ant problem. If you kill all the ants, then you won't have an ant problem. The funny thing about killing ants is you will invariably kill other kinds of bugs as well- good innocent bugs.

There is a major difference between killing ants and killing terrorists. We've established that when you kill ants, there is bound to be some collateral bug damage. Spiders, crickets, roaches, flies and other bugs will die in the anti-ant attack. But once those bugs are dead, that's the end of the problem. There aren't bugs in waiting ready turn militant at the injustice of the indiscriminate assault.

Whether stopping an ant problem or terrorism, it's important to resolve the root causes. If you leave food lying around, the ants will keep coming. If you create permanent military base in Muslim countries and continue to back despotic leaders, terrorism will continue. So maybe the Republicans were right to treat terrorism like an ant problem and they're just going about it all wrong. Cleaning up your house works better than Raid.

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