... did not swallow the Domino Theory 40 years ago, nor does it now.

My 'philosophy' -- actually, more like a personal view of tactics and strategy -- also is capable of decoupling the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan from the 'war on terror', presuming that's what you meant by 'our security'.

Some time last week, in the midst of all the crowing and groaning about the outcome of our midterm elections, the head of Britain's MI5 announced that they had foiled 50 terrorist plots on British soil since the Underground bombings. Has our vaunted Dept. of Homeland Security made similar announcements? It's possible that they have, and I missed them... but say for the moment that they have not. Why? I see three possible reasons: either they consider secrecy to be paramount, to the point of omitting notice of success, or there has been no success, or (and I consider this the most likely) there have been no 'terror cells' operating in the US.

Of course, our government could not admit to either lack of success or lack of targets, because it has spent the last five years reinforcing its hold on power with widespread fear-mongering -- the very fear you seem to have adopted, regarding 'my' political philosophy vis a vis national security. So instead, we get stories like the one from this past summer, where some guys from Texas were busted at the Canadian border for, essentially, having too many cell phones (all "terror" charges against them dropped by the end of the same week).

In the absence of claims of success, what sticks in the public's mind is examples of incompetence. Combine that 'home front' version with the news from Iraq and Afghanistan, and -- if, as I interpreted your stand in my previous post, anything short of total victory is defeat -- then 'your' political philosophy defeated itself.