From the Chicago Sun-Times:
Reporter Lara Logan brings ominous news from Middle EastTime to cut our ties to middle-eastern oil, beef up aid and security for Israel and pull out of Afghanistan and that region in general. Make serious cuts in foreign aid to these nations unless they show a marked increase in stamping out terrorists. A strong defense of our borders would not be out of line either -- we routinely find prayer mats and Korans on the Mexican border.
This was no ordinary rubber chicken affair. That was my reaction to the extraordinary keynoter at Tuesday�s Better Government Association annual luncheon.
Lara Logan, a correspondent for CBS� �60 Minutes,� delivered a provocative speech to about 1,100 influentials from government, politics, media, and the legal and corporate arenas. Such downtown gatherings are a regular on Chicago�s networking circuit. (I am a member of the BGA�s Civic Leadership Committee, and the Chicago Sun-Times was a sponsor).
Her ominous and frightening message was gleaned from years of covering our wars in the Middle East. She arrived in Chicago on the heels of her Sept. 30 report, �The Longest War.� It examined the Afghanistan conflict and exposed the perils that still confront America, 11 years after 9/11.
Eleven years later, �they� still hate us, now more than ever, Logan told the crowd. The Taliban and al-Qaida have not been vanquished, she added. They�re coming back.
�I chose this subject because, one, I can�t stand, that there is a major lie being propagated . . .� Logan declared in her native South African accent.
The lie is that America�s military might has tamed the Taliban.
�There is this narrative coming out of Washington for the last two years,� Logan said. It is driven in part by �Taliban apologists,� who claim �they are just the poor moderate, gentler, kinder Taliban,� she added sarcastically. �It�s such nonsense!�
