Fly Paper

In truth I need some fly paper; or I needed it a couple of weeks ago. Seemed like all I had were flies. But since I gave up my policy of throwing trash on the floor, they seem to have disappeared.

But of course, what I am really referring to is the so-called "Fly-Paper Strategy" espoused by Andrew Sullivan and others to explain why our troops being in constant danger in Iraq is a good thing. Basically the theory is that if the terrorists are fighting our soldiers in the middle east, they can't fight us in the west. Well, this argument has a number of flaws in it, and I particularly like the way Joshua Micah Marshall dealt with it this week.

As a TPM reader put it to me both hilariously and brilliantly more than a year ago, this 'fly paper' thesis is like saying we're going to build one super dirty hospital where we can fight the germs on our own terms.

Clearly that analogy points in some uncomfortable directions. But the salient point is clear: everyone who is not an utter fool knows that the number of young and disaffected men in the Muslim world who are potentially willing to take up arms against America is, for practical geopolitical purposes, all but infinite. Killing those already bent on suicide missions against the US is undeniably a good thing. But doing so in a way that is guaranteed to replace them with ten new volunteers is the most foolish way to go about it. It is the classic case of dousing the fire with gasoline.

Of course that leaves untended the fact the guerrillas we're blowing up in Iraq aren't the folks running the safe houses in Karachi and Peshawar who constitute the real threat. Adrift as well is the straightforward matter that turning Iraq into a killing field isn't really compatible with making it into a redoubt of democracy, prosperity and western values.

Knocking holes in this argument is really too easy and after a bit beside the point. The real problem with this argument is its proponents -- folks who seem inclined to put insipid wordplay above the lives of American soldiers and marines, indeed, above against the future security of the country itself.

Mr. Marshall also had a very solid article on how Iraq is both at the center of this campaign and largely undiscussed in any serious way.