Rumsfeld: Remember History

Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfield says we must look to history and not underestimate our enemies in the Terror War.

Americans must take a lesson from history and not believe that the terrorist threat has been exaggerated or will go away, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Wednesday.

The new terrorist enemy is, he said, "even more ruthless and more lethal - with no territory to defend, no treaties to honor, that measures progress in terms of decades, not days, and who seeks the world's most dangerous weapons. With this sort of enemy, Americans cannot afford - and indeed could not survive - another holiday from history."

In remarks prepared for delivery to students at the Air Force's war college at Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base, Rumsfeld also acknowledged that the Iraq war, like other battles, "has not been a steady upward glide path. We have not been successful at predicting every conceivable tactic of the enemy."

In effect what he is saying is that our current troubles are a continuation of a war that has been going on for about 1,400 years.

He is also saying that set backs are inevitable.

The hardest thing he says is that short term thinking (years) will not defeat an enemy who thinks in terms of decades and centuries. Which is why I do not worry much if the Dems get into control of Congress. Our enemies will keep attacking and thus the Dems will be forced to deal with it or be destroyed as a viable political party.