. . . about the “war on terror”

"I will use our military when necessary, but it is not primarily a military operation. It’s an intelligence-gathering, law-enforcement, public-diplomacy effort.  And we’re putting far more money into the war on the battlefield than we are into the war of ideas. We need to get it straight."

— John Kerry, April 13, 2004, Meet The Press

Remember how the delusional comic-book-reading right lambasted Kerry over that?  Now read this:

Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the National Press Club on Monday that he had “objected to the use of the term ‘war on terrorism’ before, because if you call it a war, then you think of people in uniform as being the solution.” He said the threat instead should be defined as violent extremists, with the recognition that “terror is the method they use.”

Although the military is heavily engaged in the mission now, he said, future efforts require “all instruments of our national power, all instruments of the international communities’ national power.” The solution is “more diplomatic, more economic, more political than it is military,” he concluded.

WMDs, national security, social security—I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of watching Repubs riding the learning curve to get to the same place that the rest of us were several years ago.