Lesson From the Recent Terror Plot

One more time, from jolly Old England, the news of a terrorist plot takes center stage with the arrest of some individuals, allegedly planning to explode planes on flight to the U.S. with a very complicated scheme, by which they would assemble the explosives on board and detonate them with a cell phone or something like that.
In fact, I wouldn’t even call this news, since destroying a plane in flight (or the attempt to do so) has been in the books of whackos for some time now. Perhaps what is new is the method they were going to use. I don’t know.
In any case, my point is that, this incident should, once and for all, teach us an important lesson. We can’t avoid terrorist attacks by invading other countries.
While we are busy in Iraq and Afghanistan, this characters can really be anywhere in the World and, save some insider information, luck or plain old vigilance there is little more anyone can do to avoid being hurt by frantic and delusional psychopaths.
That’s why, one more time, I think the best we can do is to leave the politics of the region alone. I know this doesn’t sit well with those dreaming of more markets and plenty of oil, but the losses we may suffer hurt me more than the benefits, if any, from our military ventures.
To me, the life of just one of our soldiers, taken from home to fight this ghost army, is much more valuable than the life of a thousand suicide bombers.
Pretty soon, the number of Americans lost in Iraq and Afghanistan will supersede that of 9/11, and all we’ve accomplished is to revert Afghanistan to an all-time poppy growing land and witness Iraqis killing each other in sectarian feuds. Not to mention the fact that fanatics are using our actions to justify theirs. Is it worth it? I don’t think so.
On the lighter side, soon we will have to travel in our underwear to avoid unnecessary searches. Well, there will always be cavity search. Ouch!