The beginning of the end

Rummy is telling us to sit tight during the generational conflict which was otherwise known as the war on terror, or depending on the audience, the war on evil. Comparing Osama to Adolf and Vladimir, he thinks we are facing an enemy that wants to "rule the world", just as he did in 1976 when he attempted to convince us that the USSR was after the same thing. This despite the fact that Al Qaida has given no indication of any desire to rule the world. Maybe they'd like a theocratic, orthodox Muslim state from which they could launch terror strikes and make women wear really unflattering clothes, but seriously, rule the freaking world? Have they marched into Poland? Are they amassing troops on the Mongolian borders of China? While radical Islamic fundamentalists have expressed a desire to spread theocracy on a global scale, does anyone actually believe that would be realistically possible? They will never have the capability to launch ICBMs to the earth's remote corners, manufacture Ipods or even command a unified army. Osama is no more able to control the loose international network of jihadists than Bush is able to control stability in Iraq.

"The only way that terrorists can win this struggle is if we lose our will and surrender the fight, or think it's not important enough, or in confusion or in disagreement among ourselves give them the time to regroup and reestablish themselves in Iraq or elsewhere," Rumsfeld said.

Or perhaps the long-term erosion of civil liberties, suppression of dissent and forced, military imposition of democracy by an Orwellian, imperial overlord breeds a global anarchic rebellion whose only goal is violent, but futile resistance. Just like the adulterer who is convinced their spouse is cheating, these chronically tunnel-visioned neo-cons are just as positively convinced that their enemy is after the same goal as them.
As the Flav so succinctly said a few years back, don't believe the hype!