From Clarity To A Blur - The Wars Against Afghanistan, Iraq, And Terror

this originally posted yesterday as a comment over at Daily Kos

The real intrigue involving the terrorist attacks is why Spain would be targeted because of Iraq, and by Al Qaeda.

Since there is no link between Al Qaeda and Iraq, perhaps the intended response is to take advantage of the weakness that Spain and the US showed by insisting on their participation when only 10% of the people were in favor.

First, this makes arguments about defending democracy seem more hollow.

Second, it blurs the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in a way that, at least in this case, causes great psychological dissonance.

For, what we really have is one war in Afghanistan, and another in Iraq, but the two are inextricably intermingled.

So, support for the war in Afghanistan, which was generally accepted by free peoples worldwide, gets blurred because we forced another war in Iraq that almost noone was in favor of.

And it's the war in Afghanistan, much more than Iraq, that Al Qaeda and Islamicist terrorists would be truly motivated by.

In the end, we have psychologically left great weaknesses in the hearts and minds of people in our fight against terrorism by going to war with Iraq.

From clarity, we've created a blur.