Are we really serious about this war?

I'll throw dirt at the Left all day on having a 10 SEP 01 mindset, but the right has a lot to clean up as well.

Some significant data-points on why the answer may be, "No."

Military: still the careerist mentality. From Max Boot.

What's more, some of the best and brightest American officers are being steered away from Iraqi units. Everyone in the U.S. armed forces knows that the way to the top is to command American units, not to advise foreign units — even if the latter task is more difficult and more important.

One Army officer who has served in Iraq and would be well qualified for an advisory role told me recently that he was asked to become an ROTC instructor at home but not an advisor in Iraq. Those he sees being sent to help Iraqis tend to have "marginal career prospects." "No one is diverted from a school or command," he told me. "No one is sent after a successful command."

National Defense: Saudi Arabia. Remember how many of the 11 SEP hijackers were from S.A.? Well.

Thousands of students from Saudi Arabia are enrolling on college campuses across the United States this semester under a new educational exchange program brokered by President Bush and Saudi King Abdullah.

The program will quintuple the number of Saudi students and scholars here by the academic yearÂ’s end. And big, public universities from Florida to the Kansas plains are in a fierce competition for their tuition dollars.

The kingdom’s royal family — which is paying full scholarships for most of the 15,000 students — says the program will help stem unrest at home by schooling the country’s brightest in the American tradition.
...
“These 15,000 students will really jump-start education and that will be a great addition to the Kingdom,” said Goodman. “At its base, it’s about mutual understanding.”

...and then, that gave us what in return?

Oh, remember airport security?

Airport workers are finding themselves subject to surprise screenings as the government issues new security tactics at airports nationwide. The changes are a direct response to this year's foiled plot to blow-up America-bound airplanes.

Baggage handlers, gate agents, ramp workers and other airport employees who in the past were not subject to any security searches before the enter restricted and secure areas are now being targeted in this latest government effort to make airports safer.

I am not impressed.