Politics was the topic of discussion yesterday between a woman my wife works with and me. It wasn't a long discussion. It started with Ann Coulter's new book, which I haven't read. It moved on to Iraq. This woman is the anchor when it comes to towing the party line. I brought up the killing of one of the ringmasters, and basically my view was that he was put on display so everyone could see what a wonderful job is being done, but the very next day there was still something to be afraid of. The news media didn't even blink as the headlines read, 'A new face on terror!' Can you be any more predictable? Anyway, she said it did do some good, they needed to cut off the head so the rest would start floundering. Earlier in the conversation I said it was possible that if we ignore them they will go away, her response was they wouldn't, they were too well organized, a machine fighting for their beliefs. When the 'off with the head, the body will flounder' theory came up, I put it to her this way.

If it is so important that we killed the leader, that it is a blow to the organization, this suggests the man was holding things together. She said this was true. I brought up that just a few minutes earlier, she was suggesting they needed to be eradicated because they are highly organized, an efficient, well established machine. These are contradictory concepts. At that point she had to go out to have a cigarette....