CQ: The Asymmetrical Offense

High on the list of things W has done right is what the good captain calls The Asymmetrical Offense.

In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan saw that the Soviet Union had no economic capacity for an extended struggle and that "peaceful coexistence" only benefitted the Soviets, as it allowed them to conserve scarce capital resources for life support. Reagan initiated an economic war with the Kremlin designed to bankrupt them by not only escalating our defense spending, but encouraging democracy movements wherever the Soviets had taken control. He openly supported Solidarity, putting pressure on the Soviets through Poland and encouraging the Baltic states to awaken, and he took on the Sandanistas in Central America, forcing them eventually to hold real elections -- and out of power.

George Bush looks to have done the same thing. After decapitating the Taliban, he deprived al-Qaeda of its safehouse. Removing Saddam Hussein gave Bush the military high ground in Southwest Asia, but the elections in both countries created a new, philosophical front that directly opposed that of the Islamofascists. Terrorists still operate within Iraq and to a lesser degree Afghanistan, but now their war on democracy has suddenly sprouted into a five-front war: Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, Lebanon, and even Syria, where activists have begun to stir for the first time since the slaughter at Hama.

Indeed, recent events have had a certain echo of 1989 to them. I hope we also soon witness the collapse of the regime in North Korea. And Iran? Faster, please.