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Sep. 11th, 2003 04:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vaxjediPoltical Thoughts on a Political Day...
Various thoughts on volatile subjects. Not always fully thoughgt out or phrased carefully. Enter at your own risk.
The next time I hear someone say terrorists are attacking the US because they 'hate our freedom' is going to get decked.
I'm sorry. No Islamic terrorist group is out sitting in a secret bunker saying "You know, those Americans have free elections." "yeah, and they have freedom of expression, they can say what they want. They have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." "You're right. Freedom sucks. Let's kill them!" In fact, the closest behavior I see to this is from religious conservatives in the Good Ol' U S of A.
What Islamic terrorists are saying is "You know, those Americans are giving money to people who have taken our land. They are standing by while these people decapitate our leaders and resistors with rockets fired from helicopters. They fund and allow the corporations who come in here, take our jobs and tell my children that my way of life is stupid and meaningless."
Whether you agree with them or not, that's what is motivating them. This "they hate us because we are free" bullshit is blatant propoganda. And what's worse, it's a propaganda that has become the basis for American policy, not just American bias.
I don't think we should pull out of Iraq. I didn't think we should go in there in the first place, but I think a quick exit is going to leave a huge vacuum in which more chaos will ensue. We fucked up Iraq, it's our job to at least try to fix it.
We can't do it alone (we should have never tried to do it alone in the first place). We need the UN (we needed the UN in the first place). Not only can we not foot the cost, but if we are truly interested in making the remnants of Iraq a part of the international community, then we need the help of the international community.
I don't fault the other nations for being wary. Our dear President has made unilateralism a cornerstone in his foreign policy from the beginning (from the Kyoto treaty to his heavy-handed handling of the missile shield idea to Afghanistan to Iraq, etc etc etc). Bush needs to make the concessions to the international community to prove that this can really be an international effort. Otherwise, it's going to fester and get worse.
The "war on terrorism" is crap. Utter crap. Like the "war on drugs", it's just a catch phrase, it has no worth except to be used as a convenient logo to slap on whatever hamfisted policy the government is touting today. Yes, this bombing brought to you by the War on Terrorism(tm) - ask for it by name!
Bush called the Iraq the "new front" in the war on terrorism. In a certain respect, he is correct. However, he's got the sides all wrong.
You see, the real war on terrorism is between those who perpetuate terror and those who try to end it. The current American policies in Iraq are simply instruments to perpetuate terror. We are teaching a whole new generation of Arabs that there si nothing they can do to fight the US war machine head on. Diplomacy didn't work. Military resistance didn't work. They see the fact that the only thing that is effective when dealing with a significantly stronger nation is protracted guerilla warfare.
Our fair nation is on the side of terror. It just happens to be Iraqi terror. Unfortunately, terror seems to be okay as long as it isn't ours.
People keep saying that the world changed on 9/11.
It certainly changed for the friends and loved ones in the Twin Towers.
But you know, the world hasn't changed. It wasn't suddenly a more dangerous place. Inhabitants of Israel still never know if someone is going to suddenly explode in the middle of a crowded bus. Palestinians still fear the sight of any Israeli military force or the sound of a helicoptrer overhead. Dissidents in China are still in fear for their lives. India and Pakistan still hate each other. Inner city kids still fear drive-by shootings. People in small African nations still fear their governments. Women walking alone on a deserated American street still fear that they could be attacked at any point. All just as much as they did before.
The world hasn't changed. We Americans have finally realized that we aren't invulnerable, that's all. We are tasting the fear that other nations around the world have always known. America has just had it's cherry popped as a nation in a sometimes violent world.
Various thoughts on volatile subjects. Not always fully thoughgt out or phrased carefully. Enter at your own risk.
The next time I hear someone say terrorists are attacking the US because they 'hate our freedom' is going to get decked.
I'm sorry. No Islamic terrorist group is out sitting in a secret bunker saying "You know, those Americans have free elections." "yeah, and they have freedom of expression, they can say what they want. They have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." "You're right. Freedom sucks. Let's kill them!" In fact, the closest behavior I see to this is from religious conservatives in the Good Ol' U S of A.
What Islamic terrorists are saying is "You know, those Americans are giving money to people who have taken our land. They are standing by while these people decapitate our leaders and resistors with rockets fired from helicopters. They fund and allow the corporations who come in here, take our jobs and tell my children that my way of life is stupid and meaningless."
Whether you agree with them or not, that's what is motivating them. This "they hate us because we are free" bullshit is blatant propoganda. And what's worse, it's a propaganda that has become the basis for American policy, not just American bias.
I don't think we should pull out of Iraq. I didn't think we should go in there in the first place, but I think a quick exit is going to leave a huge vacuum in which more chaos will ensue. We fucked up Iraq, it's our job to at least try to fix it.
We can't do it alone (we should have never tried to do it alone in the first place). We need the UN (we needed the UN in the first place). Not only can we not foot the cost, but if we are truly interested in making the remnants of Iraq a part of the international community, then we need the help of the international community.
I don't fault the other nations for being wary. Our dear President has made unilateralism a cornerstone in his foreign policy from the beginning (from the Kyoto treaty to his heavy-handed handling of the missile shield idea to Afghanistan to Iraq, etc etc etc). Bush needs to make the concessions to the international community to prove that this can really be an international effort. Otherwise, it's going to fester and get worse.
The "war on terrorism" is crap. Utter crap. Like the "war on drugs", it's just a catch phrase, it has no worth except to be used as a convenient logo to slap on whatever hamfisted policy the government is touting today. Yes, this bombing brought to you by the War on Terrorism(tm) - ask for it by name!
Bush called the Iraq the "new front" in the war on terrorism. In a certain respect, he is correct. However, he's got the sides all wrong.
You see, the real war on terrorism is between those who perpetuate terror and those who try to end it. The current American policies in Iraq are simply instruments to perpetuate terror. We are teaching a whole new generation of Arabs that there si nothing they can do to fight the US war machine head on. Diplomacy didn't work. Military resistance didn't work. They see the fact that the only thing that is effective when dealing with a significantly stronger nation is protracted guerilla warfare.
Our fair nation is on the side of terror. It just happens to be Iraqi terror. Unfortunately, terror seems to be okay as long as it isn't ours.
People keep saying that the world changed on 9/11.
It certainly changed for the friends and loved ones in the Twin Towers.
But you know, the world hasn't changed. It wasn't suddenly a more dangerous place. Inhabitants of Israel still never know if someone is going to suddenly explode in the middle of a crowded bus. Palestinians still fear the sight of any Israeli military force or the sound of a helicoptrer overhead. Dissidents in China are still in fear for their lives. India and Pakistan still hate each other. Inner city kids still fear drive-by shootings. People in small African nations still fear their governments. Women walking alone on a deserated American street still fear that they could be attacked at any point. All just as much as they did before.
The world hasn't changed. We Americans have finally realized that we aren't invulnerable, that's all. We are tasting the fear that other nations around the world have always known. America has just had it's cherry popped as a nation in a sometimes violent world.
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no subject
Date: 2003-09-11 06:39 pm (UTC)And we don't like it one bit. We are a child striking out at what humiliated and frightened us.
no subject
Date: 2003-09-12 10:58 am (UTC)