Gangsterism is by it's nature, illegirimate, it is force without consent, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you're using in the Marxist sense, that only a charnel house like the Soviets could manage without irony, We strive not to attack noncombatants, they see it as a mark of honor to do so, It's odd for a democratic regime to fighting on multiole fronts of the same war, for the better part of a dozen years, I suppose the Indian wars, are the closest parallel.

Well there's a certain logic, we fought the Kaiser, we ended up with the Nazis. we beat them we got the Russians, we bet them we got the Taliban and AQ,

Kahn, has an interesting angle, although it's more accurate to call America, 'a propositional nation; In that regard one wonders if we had followed up on Miles Ignotus's 'Modest suggestion,' from 1975, and invaded Saudi Arabia,

I suppose that is more true than not, recall that Gadarfa and magrathi (sic) not even the most numerous of elements, reigned in Libya, the Saud, a subgroup of the Anizeh, The Tikriti clan, out of the Dulaimi region, what difference does that make,

What's that line from 'Man of La Mancha' To dream the impossible dream, rest assured the other hegemons are nowhere as foolish, you could ask Zandarbichev, exiled Chechen chieftain, from his sanctuary in Doha, actually you can't because the FSB blew him up, even aspiring powers like Iran's Sepah Pasdaran, do seem to have a fluid understanding of other's sovereignty.

Is Kotsko really saying that, that isn't really clear at all, he doesn't acknowledge and perhaps isn't aware of the Levick Group
and other enterprises, public relations strategy to stigmatize all aspects of counter terror policy,

It would be treated as a surrender, and an acknowledgement about what UBL said about strong horses and weak ones, then what, the UAV is the successor to the Tomahawk, I suppose it makes one feel better, and that is what counts.

What he doesn't want to acknowledge is this conflict didn't begin in 2001, one can trace it back to 1996, with the first declaration of war, or 1992, with the first attempt on US forces in Yemen, so revoking the AUMF, and the Patriot Act,
really doesn't even come close to solving the problem.

Now to be fair, CK you were maddeningly uncommittal, however it's not like committing to one side or another, would really have satisfied him

Touchy, that fellow Kotsko, is, so you repeal the AUMF and the Patriot Act, then what, you haven't solved the problem, which was stated by a character in the MI-5 series, Mohammeed Khordad, 'America out of the Middle East, a corrupt free Saudi Arabia, and justice for Palestine; regardless those are not achievable goals, that is what drives them.