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Whew! Karl Rove really did it this time:

Liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers. Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war.  Conservatives saw what happened to us on 9/11 and said we will defeat our enemies. Liberals saw what happened to us and said we must understand our enemies.

The response has been swift - repeated calls for resignation, retraction, or apology from various Democratic leaders, and the families of 9/11.

Of course, some folks are being stupid to declare that no, they didn't want understanding.

Of course we want to understand the enemy.

If you don't understand the problem, you can't find the right solution.  It's as simple as that.  Karl Rove and George Bush look down on understanding.  They don't understand the problem, and so that's why they can't find the solution.

People understand the need to understand our enemies.  That's why we have criminal profilers.  It's why we have criminal psychologists.  It's why we make an effort to understand what makes criminals tick.

Any problem is a two-headed monster.  In order to solve the problem, you have to attack the supply of its symptoms, and you have to attack the demand for the problem. What happens when you don't want to understand the problem?  You do what Republicans do.  You invest all your energy on reducing supply, without caring about demand.

In the war on terrorism, Karl and George went over to the middle east to kill themselves some terrorists.  They want to reduce the number of existing terrorists.  And because they don't want to understand, their actions then create the demand for even more terrorists.  Kill fifty terrorists, create a hundred more.  That is what happens when you don't understand.

Karl and George don't understand the terrorism problem.  We are in more danger from terrorism than we used to be.  We have more enemies than we used to have.  America is less respected than it used to be.  Oh sure, Karl and George have spent a lot of money.  They've killed a lot of enemies.  They've lost a lot of American lives.  Oh, and let's not forget - they captured Saddam... who they actually believed was a key figure in the world of terrorism.

But they haven't solved the terrorism problem.  They made it worse.  Because they don't understand.

If you are going to defeat the enemy, you must understand the enemy.  That's common sense that anyone - except for George and Karl - can understand.