I know it’s a bit more complicated than this, but that’s roughly what the average Frenchman thinks.

Then I shall have to reevaluate my ingrained generations of prejudice against our gallic chums (sadly that’s said only partially in jest!)

Of course having an efficient intelligence and counter-terrorist apparatus also removes the perceived need for politicians to attack civil liberties in the guise of protecting us from the Bad Men.

Waging a war on a people under the guise (maybe even BELIEVED) of helping them does not seem to remove the sense animosity and hostility that some of that people have towards one.

As an influence and power-projection issue I am constantly amazed at how ham-fisted the western powers are with spending. The old cliche that the US defence spending for one year could pay for clean drinking water for the whole world’s population may be a false friend (don’t pay the defence budget for a year and you suddenly have a bigger drain on welfar payments and system, macinery which breaks down and so on) but if one wants to project power and influence then there MUST be better ways than waging a war.

A firefight ALWAYS has the potential to harm your own combatants and uninvolveds. Hit uninvolveds and there is a chance that you recruit them, their friends, their families and onlookers to your opponent’s side. It may be that in one given firefight onlookers are so anti one’s opponents that none are recruited. But more firefights = more opportunities.

The attacks on 911 were (self-evidently I should hope a Bad Thing) but a sustained intelligence-led police action could (in my view should) have allowed bringing to justice the perpetrators and prevention of future attacks. A ham fisted show of who has the biggest penis made the victims of the attack feel better briefly and then brought more loss, pain and suffering and has created more enemies and more conflicts.

That Said. Flat Tops are the current status symbol of power projection. So having two operational makes it look you mean business. That MIGHT be sufficient to make Nation States treat you seriously. Whether it changes the attitude of more loosely-aligned federations of smaller groups (a la Al Quaida) is maybe more open to debate.

Al