"Absolutely less safe," but "It takes a while..."

General Pervez Musharraf, the president of Pakistan says that the world is "absolutely less safe" as a result of the war on terror, and he knows why:

"We are not addressing the core problems, so therefore we can never address terrorism in its totality. We are fighting terrorism in its immediate context, but we are not fighting it in its strategic, long-term context. It is the political disputes and also the issues of illiteracy and poverty, combined these are breeding grounds of extremism and terrorism."

However, U.S. President George W. Bush cannot understand why everyone's so anxious. After all:

the voting scheduled for Iraq on Jan. 30 will "send the clear message to the people in Iraq that are trying to stop the march toward democracy that they cannot stop elections. People must understand that democracy just doesn't happen overnight. It takes a while for democracy to take hold. And this is a major first step in a society which enables people to express their beliefs and their opinions."

That same day in Iraq:

An attack at dawn ruptured a domestic oil pipeline supplying fuel from northern Iraq to Baghdad.



A gunfight broke out on central Baghdad's Haifa Street in the ultra secure "Green Zone," home to the country's most fortified facilities including the U.S. Embassy and interim Iraqi government headquarters and where American and Iraqi forces protect government officials, diplomats and private contractors. Witnesses said the gunmen killed an Iraqi employed by coalition authorities. The dead man was the 80th coalition employee killed in the neighborhood in a month.



Five more American soldiers were killed in the volatile Anbar province.



Other clashes killed three militants in the country's turbulent west.



And the elections George W. Bush praises are six weeks away.

Meanwhile, in Saudi Arabia, al Qaeda (Remember them? They are group responsible for the 9/11 attacks on America. You know, the ones who never had any ties to Iraq?) carried out a successful attack on the U.S. Consulate in the Red Sea port of Jeddah that left eight people dead, saying that the attackers stormed the U.S. Consulate because it is "one of the bastions of the crusaders in the Arabian Peninsula."



Ever on message, the intrepid George W. Bush summed the day up this way:

"The attacks in Saudi Arabia remind us that the terrorists are still on the move. They're interested in affecting the will of free countries. They want us to leave Saudi Arabia. They want us to leave Iraq. And that's why these elections in Iraq are very important."

Besides, if we can just keep the people focused on elections then maybe they won't have time to worry about "illiteracy and poverty," the "breeding grounds of extremism and terrorism," because if they ever did become literate and enjoy a measure of economic justice, who knows what they might demand next?



Guardian (UK) - Musharraf: al-Qaida is on the run



New York Times - 2 C.I.A. Reports Offer Warnings on Iraq's Path