Real Kato Blog: It's All Been Said Before

But, like a Bush sound bite, all of this bears repeating.

In Bush's weekly radio address, he said: "The terrorists cannot defeat us on the battlefield. The only way they can win is if we lose our nerve. That will not happen on my watch."

The scary thing is, I think Bush actually believes that's true... that all we have to do is ~~remain arrogant~~ keep our nerve, and that will let us "win" against terrorism.

Here's the thing: for terrorism to succeed, it only has to survive. And for it to survive, it only has to have a cause. We can't possibly kill every terrorist or potential terrorist, and we can't secure all the arms and explosives in the world. So as long as there are people who want to be terrorists, there will be terrorists.

By continuing to occupy Iraq, we strengthen the terrorists' cause. We give them more reasons to attack us. They may not be justified in those reasons, but it's become so easy for radical Muslims in Iraq to say, "we have to attack the Americans so we can reclaim our native country." We've given al-Qaeda a symbolic rallying point.

This line of thinking is terribly unpopular among hard-core Bush supporters. They'll act shocked at the idea that we, as victims of terrorism, might have done something to bring it upon ourselves. They'll call me unpatriotic for even suggesting that.

But is it unpatriotic to want to understand the motive for terrorism, so that we can really do something about it? Is it better that we turn off our brains, and just spew ridiculous sound bites like "the terrorists hate us for our freedom"?

I am encouraged that these sound bites don't have the same effect on the American people that they used to. They've been repeated so often that maybe they've started to ring hollow... especially when soldiers keep dying and subways keep getting bombed.

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