Swatting at flies

Here's how I would sum up the efforts of the Supreme Court's candidate for president in 2000. Dubya was handed a golden opportunity for two terms guaranteed, a Nobel Peace Prize, a gilded place in the history books, to be a best-selling author and a $25,000 per appearance lecturer. All he had to do was harness the international support in post 9/11 period (and don't go all moral on me about using that tragic event for political gain, every holder of elected office in the nation has used it to their advantage, to use it for a shot at world peace would have been acceptable) and take an international force into Afghanistan to oust the Taliban, seize Al Qaida operatives & assets and help locals (not ex-patriots like they've done in Iraq) set up a government and leave. He could have had every nation in the world seizing the assets of suspected terrorist organizations and sharing intel regarding activities of the same. Those who remained supportive of terrorists would have been cut from all trade and foreign support. He should have shut down all US military bases in predominantly Muslim countries (why put resources into their economies if we're infidels?) and removed females from diplomatic positions in all old-school, predominantly Muslim countries (not a chauvinist act just respectful of the host's culture). He should have begun efforts, IN EARNEST, to reduce and eventually eliminate the West's dependence on foreign oil. He should have frozen all foreign aid to the Mideast, yes that includes Israel.

If this whole thing was about stopping terrorism then some of these things would have been done, but clearly it isn't about terrorism and never has been. Conde Rice, who can do the DC two-step with the best of 'em, summed it up most eloquently when testifying before the 9/11 commission by saying that Mr. Bush was "...tired of swatting at flies..." in reference to the White House focus on Iraq and not on Al Qaida. So let's get this straight, the Bush team unilaterally invaded a sovereign nation, ruining any chance to form an international coalition to fight terrorism not to mention losing what little support we had with Muslims and other allies, sacrificed several hundred American military personnel and wounded thousands of others, spent a few hundred billion of the tax payers hard earned dollars, and added fuel to the terrorist cause on this planet because he was annoyed by the actions of the ruler of Iraq. Seems rather petty...are you sure he's earned your support?
Regards,
John