Thoughts on the GWOT

I've posted a piece I've been working on for several weeks:

Pro GWOT Since December 21, 1988.

It's become increasingly important in terms of support and strategy for the war that we acknowledge the locus as well as the broader roots of what we are up against.

It's a long piece, so I'll only post excerpts.

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I threatened back then to cull my unflinching support for the war from any perceived Bush loyalty in another post.

Here it is - the day the Global War on Terror began.

In 1988, terrorists took down a Pan Am plane over Lockerbie, Scotland (1, 2, 3, 4), killing 270 people, including eleven citizens of Lockerbie. A bomb detonated in the forward hold, causing the plane to dump passengers and debris over the 81 mile trail of the crash.

The world held its breath as the suspected terrorists were hunted; no one doubted that it was again the work of terrorists demanding either money for their cause or for the release of their fellow terrorists.
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Regardless of whether you believe the terrorists behind the Lockerbie massacre were Libyan or Syrian, the fact remains that before Lockerbie went down, virtually every terrorist attack had taken place on soil or the air route of a sympathetic nation or in distant points where we had military presence.

Lockerbie signaled a sea change: These hyperactive and ideologically unified terrorists were opposed to the idea and ideals of the West - not simply any inroads or presence in their homelands by Westerners - and were now determined bring to the battle to our doorstep with as violent and costly results as possible.