Terrorism As A Nuisance

That's what John Kerry said his policy was in 2004 for which he was mercilessly ridiculed and attacked by Bush and Cheney. "Senator Kerry talked of reducing terrorism to - quote - 'nuisance' - end quote - and compared it to prostitution and illegal gambling," President Bush said. "See, I couldn't disagree more. Our goal is not to reduce terror to some acceptable level of nuisance. Our goal is to defeat terror by staying on the offensive, destroying terrorists, and spreading freedom and liberty around the world." Here's how the Bush Pentagon just described their anti-terror policy in the just released National Defense Strategy:

"Victory will include discrediting extremist ideology, creating fissures between and among extremist groups and reducing them to the level of nuisance groups that can be tracked and handled by law enforcement capabilities."

Memo to Obama: keep Gates at Defense.