The U.S. can do two things at once

I’ve been posting way, way too much lately, and I swear I’ll refrain for a while after today. However, I wanted to get in one last post.
In looking for something else, I found this article from New Zealand that encapsulates a couple of irritatingly persistant arguments about Iraq.
First, the idea that the U.S. has “sqandered” the “goodwill” of the “world” in the last two years. This guy says:

If, heaven forbid, there is another attack of September 11 proportions, there will not be the same sense of innocent incredulity heard worldwide when the Twin Towers fell, and still heard at the first anniversary. The ledger is even now.

Leave aside the moral equivalence between terrorists and anti-terrorists in the last sentence. “Innocent incredulity” wasn’t the universal reaction to the terror attacks. I recall watching Palestinians celebrate on the West Bank; I remember left-wing columnists writing their “but” columns. (“Sure, killing officeworkers and airline passengers is wrong, but we [pollute the environment/support Israel/fill in the blank].”) The world did not suddenly support American foreign policy on Sept. 12, 2001. They didn’t love us — they pitied us. There’s a wide chasm between the two.
Second,

Rather than resume the pursuit of Osama bin Laden, or the difficult, clandestine tasks of counterterrorism in unpleasant foreign places, the President chose a much easier target – an old foe he felt sure he could find in an already defeated and devastated country.

We are pursuing Osama, fighting terrorism in “unpleasant foreign places,” and a host of other things such as freezing bank accounts and disrupting communications — all at the same time. Why is it so hard to grasp that U.S. counterterrorism efforts can proceed at several different levels simultaneously?
The Democratic presidential candidates repeat this charge all the time. This is a crowd of people that wants the Federal government to do more and more with each passing year. Their party is responsible for making the Federal Government the size of Germany’s entire economy, with dozens of departments, bureaus, and agencies performing hundreds if not thousands of tasks at the same time. Yet our several national security entities can either depose the Iraqi dictator or find Osama — but not both?
—
That’s it for the serious entries. I’m going to find something funny to write about.