As I previously stated, many felt that it took too long for this phase of things to begin. President Bush was heartily encouraged to do this from Day One of this crisis. A military response was pushed by many in his inner circles. The fact that one didn't happen right away was aggravating to them. Bush was being lauded for his "restraint" in the situation. Then, Sunday came, and so did the response. Ever since then, there have been no clear statements as to what this actually accomplished. It seems that they were cosmetic in nature as much as anything. The American people were howling with bloodlust, and George W. Had to give it to them. The fact of the matter is that 26 days isn't a very long time at all. They call this a war. It was allegedly declared on September 11th in a surprise attack. So that would mean that America was totally unprepared to go into a war situation at that time. It takes some real time to get everything ready to launch a military campaign of any size at all, let alone the scope of all of this. It took many months of steady build-up in 1991's Persian Gulf War before the troops were ready to do anything. The first 26 days of that were just spent getting the very first preparations in place. This situation is a much bigger one than that other one was. To really do anything effective, it will take many months of careful, relentless preparation to set the stage to do things properly. In this current scenario, 26 days is even more meaningless, for we are told that this will all go on for years to come yet. So how could any effective response be crafted together in 26 days? It obviously cannot, but in that time you can have all the American media massing at the scene of the action, and put something dramatic looking on for them to show the folks back home live and in color so they can cheer and clap and stamp their feet in exultations for they fell that something is finally being done. That's about all that these first strikes are going to accomplish. Even the Pentagon cannot say that anything concrete was done so far. They just show pictures of destroyed and wrecked shit, and admit that a few people got killed and a few buildings destroyed, and that's about all. More things were probably accomplished by the humanitarian food drops than the bombing raids. But now people will shut the fuck up about "the response" and when it will commence and all that shit. They have their excuse to go around chanting "USA-USA-USA" for awhile now, and that should make them feel better.
The problem is that this is all such a volatile situation and getting more so by the hour, and anything that is done within it is taken as serious shit by many people. The Pentagon may know that what's been done so far is essentially meaningless, but many around the world do not in addition to the American people. In Pakistan and a few other Muslim countries, there was some anti-American rioting as a result of what has happened. This was to be expected, but the ramifications of it could make things much worse than they already are. Many of these Islamic states where the people are pissed off over this are not too stable of societies. The governments in many of them are juts barely hanging on to power as it is, and all of this has galvanized many opposition groups in these countries. Organizations that were just fringe shit are now steadily gaining in power and influence amongst the people in these countries. The leaders of these organizations are generally not much of anything at all in their societies, but now they are able to rally many around a single point. They are taking this current situation and fanning the flames in it and making things get more and more intense. They are cloaking themselves in things like religious fervor and politics, but they are just acting in the name of themselves, and no one else. They want to overthrow whatever government they don't like not because they truly hate it and want it replaced, but because they want to be exactly what that government is now and they just need the current ones out of the way so that they can do that. This state of current affairs is giving these types exactly what they need, a very highly emotional, serious situation that they feel that they can use for their own selfish purposes. These are the people that orchestrated the anti-American riots that we have seen so far. What was done in those riots showed that. You had people burning down theaters that were showing American movies. What does that do? They went and burned banks too. Not before they went inside and took as much of the valuable shit out of them that they could. That just looks like the "leaders" of these opposition groups stealing the necessary funds for them to continue operating. Same with looting the stores. All that shit did was to enrich whoever was behind these riots in the first place. So now, they have more money and goods and power and shit than ever before. Where they were originally deemed as no threat to the government that they oppose, now they have what they needed to give that government a run for their money. Since the governments that they oppose are in pretty shitty shape in most cases, it doesn't take as much as you'd think to be able to do that. They now pose a legitimate threat to the various governments now because of all of this. Each and every response that America makes to Afghanistan or the Taliban or whoever will only serve to strengthen people like this even further. This will contribute to even more instability within these various countries, and that will only serve to worsen things for everyone. A friendly government is now under big-time attack by an unfriendly bunch of dudes, and every time that America attacks someone Muslim, that situation gets ever more volatile, and the possibility of changing of the guard become an ever more real possibility. This is part of the fallout of America's response.
Another one has to do with that bin Laden fuckoff. He was on TV for everyone to see giving his little soliloquy from the mouth of the cave within hours of the American response. Anyone that thought that was live or anything close to live was pretty fucked up. That little performance of that assfuck was taped a few days before everything started to happen. He was saving it for when they did, for he had a plan in mind with it. Everything that he said and did on that video was carefully orchestrated for maximum effect. He knew that everyone would be waiting to hear from him when America responded, and he was ready. The speech that he gave didn't go over well in America, but that was not his target audience for it. His main audience was the Arab world. He was speaking to them in their own language in more ways than one. It was not only what he was saying, but how he was saying it that did the trick. His little act went over really big amongst the Arab world. If the US actions were primarily meant to send a message to the people back home that things were being done when they really weren't, the people in the Arab world got the same message. They sw the bombs dropping as well as the American people did, and they came to many of the same conclusions. When they saw bin Laden out there on their TV sets, it looked to them as if he had withstood this assault and come out unscathed. He talked all rough and tough as a good terrorist would, and by doing so he scared the shit out of Americans some more and he made it look as if he had stood up to this stronger, bigger foe and remained unhurt and defiant as ever. This makes him look like an absolute fuckin' god to the Arab people. They see one of their own "standing up" to the combined powers of the world and remaining the same as ever. This makes his bullshit rhetoric about Jihads and Infidels and his fuckin' threats and Promises totally believable in the eyes of his fellow Arabs. They have no way of knowing what really happened for they are only privy to censored information from their authorities. So when they see bin Laden at the mouth of the cave spouting shit, they see someone that has what it takes to stand up to the entire world in the name of Islam and its brethren. This is exactly how they saw his speech. It made that gut a fuckin' celebrity of the highest magnitude on the Arab world. It has also done wonders for Saddam Hussein, for that sort of image is what has helped him keep his power since the Gulf War. Bin Laden is now taking himself to that sort of mythological level amongst the Arabs as well. This is another thing that has happened as a result of the fallout from the American reactions. It has made bin Laden look much stronger in the eyes of far too many, especially those from which he can find his next crop of recruits.
So it looks like this first round if air attacks hasn't done too much at all, unlike the first wave of them in Baghdad back in 1991. It was almost like this was some sort of made-for TV thing to placate the warmongers and bloodlusters and Presidential critics. I suppose that this is all well and good when you look at it like that. While all this TV shit is going on, the real plans are being laid that will truly accomplish your intended mission. It keeps the dogs off of your back. But this time the situation is way too fuckin' volatile to do this sort of shit. The unintended effects of your actions could rise up and get in the way of your being able to accomplish what you want to do. I can understand that there's lots of pressure back home to do something. The longer that it took as it was, the louder that chorus got. That came out of the fact that Americans have been truly unable to handle what has happened, and as a result, don't know just what to do about it all right now. This is not just the common man, for you'd expect that from him in a situation like this, but it seems to extend all the way to the top heirarchy of the government. The President could have just kept on telling the people to be cool and let him lay the foundation for fighting this war properly, but every time that he said something like that, you could tell that he didn't even believe himself that's what he should do. So it came as no surprise that he finally gave that shit up and went ahead and did what everyone wanted him to do in the first place. The American people have loved his ass for it just like the Arabs have loved bin Laden's way of handling this. It seems that we have a standoff on our hands here. That is what the start of the next phase of this situation has brought us. What happens from here is what we are all waiting for. While this standoff goes on, I am sure that the groundwork is being laid on both sides for what they plan to do next. That is the real stuff to watch for, not this made-for-TV shit, for it is what is now going on behind the scenes that will determine how this all plays out in the end.