Who’s Winning This War on Terror, Anyway?

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As someone who’s hopefully going to spend about 30 hours in the air during the next couple of weeks, I guess I should be thankful that the latest terror plot was foiled. But the resulting mayhem that I’ve been watching on TV all evening has instead prompted this quick reality check.

Here’s what we’ve given up since 9/11:

  1. All kinds of personal freedoms, like the right to an untapped phone conversation, for example.
  2. The ability to not be treated like a criminal when boarding a plane, or getting off of one.
  3. Any kind of respect or even tolerance of Muslim culture and people, the vast majority of whom are actually not members of Al-Quaeda.

And here, best as I can tell, is what we’ve gained:

  1. Oil that we’re paying through the nose for in money and blood.
  2. Some very questionable ethics in the treatment of our accused enemies.
  3. The “privilege” of having our soldiers blown up in faraway places.

I don’t know about you, but it seems to me like we’re getting our asses kicked here!