Stampede of the Grown-up Republicans

Stephen Bainbridge: "...the fly paper strategy seems to be radicalizing our foes even more. For every fly that gets caught, it seems as though 10 more spring up. This should hardly come as a surprise to anybody who has watched Israel pursue military solutions to its terrorist problems, after all. Does anybody really think Israel's military actions have left Hezbollah or Hamas with fewer foot soldiers?"

John Cole: "Once again, we have hosed the Kurds and appear to be tactily endorsing enshrining Sharia in the Constitution[.]"

The Cunning Realist: "Bush states that "vast oceans and friendly neighbors no longer protect us from those who wish to harm our people." And I agree with him. Yet at the same time, he posits that "if we do not confront these evil men abroad, we will have to face them one day in our own cities and streets." Thus an essential element of the flypaper thesis is geographical distance; it assumes that those "vast oceans" must in some way protect us, or expending massive amounts of blood and treasure "fighting them over there" would make no sense since "over there" essentially would be "here." Of course, London---as well as Madrid, Istanbul, Jakarta, Casablanca, Riyadh, and Bali---showed flypaper to be both specious as an argument and ineffective as a strategy."

Greg Djerejian: "I'm all for delegating so as not to have an LBJ redux of POTUS and aides up and about at 2 A.M. picking what bridges near Hue to bomb--but, er, who is minding the bloody store--who is really excercising a real duty of care standard here?"

Andy McCarthy: "For what it’s worth, this is where I get off the bus."