Tuesday, August 31, 2004
day 67/reason 34: Bush's real war
Ok, forget for a moment that W said that we can't win the very war that he is basing his entire re-election on. With his words yesterday, W showed again that he has no interest in analyzing and addressing the root causes of terrorism, except if he views the root cause as "those people are too darn diff'ernt than us."
What sort of "conditions" is he talking about? If democracy is his condition, there will still be terrorism because democracy won't even out the basic inequalities and helplessness in societies that often lead to terrorist acts. Also, when we try to bring democracy to other countries we often bring our cultural values as well, and the clash of cultures commonly leads to terrorism, especially when people feel that their culture is threatened.
Perhaps W believes that we will just have a period of cultural warfare with the places that "accept" terrorism, and then once we win, there will be no more terrorism. Maybe rather than a war on terror, we're actually in a war on culture. I suppose we'll know that we have won when the Muslim world has converted to Christianity and has opened its doors so that we can pour American products and culture down the people's throats. However, our "compassionate" president obviously can't state that we are in war on culture so he will continue to bang the terror drum (especially because he gains voters when people think they are in danger.)
If this is so, he has just given Osama bin Laden the proof that we are in a war against Islam. And if so, we are definitely not safer now since we have a president who will continue to attack those "parts of the world" that he sees as being places that accept terror (which are actually just places that have different cultural and religious beliefs than us, and which feel threatened by our hegemonic actions towards them.)
In actuality, we are much less safe with Bush as president because not only does he not understand the roots of terrorism, his method of waging war is actually stirring up the roots of terrorism, making it more likely by his attack on other cultures.
This idea of a war on culture fits with McLellan's comments yesterday...
Of course there won't be a formal surrender... we'll know we've won when the whole world looks, talks and acts like our country. Until then -- if we actually achieve that surrender -- with foreign policies like Bush's we will most likely see an exponential increase in terrorism as people resort to the last means possible -- in the face of our military might -- to combat our attack on their culture.
¶ 5:14 PM
"I don't think you can win it," Mr. Bush replied. "But I think you can create conditions so that those who use terror as a tool are less acceptable in parts of the world."
Ok, forget for a moment that W said that we can't win the very war that he is basing his entire re-election on. With his words yesterday, W showed again that he has no interest in analyzing and addressing the root causes of terrorism, except if he views the root cause as "those people are too darn diff'ernt than us."
What sort of "conditions" is he talking about? If democracy is his condition, there will still be terrorism because democracy won't even out the basic inequalities and helplessness in societies that often lead to terrorist acts. Also, when we try to bring democracy to other countries we often bring our cultural values as well, and the clash of cultures commonly leads to terrorism, especially when people feel that their culture is threatened.
Perhaps W believes that we will just have a period of cultural warfare with the places that "accept" terrorism, and then once we win, there will be no more terrorism. Maybe rather than a war on terror, we're actually in a war on culture. I suppose we'll know that we have won when the Muslim world has converted to Christianity and has opened its doors so that we can pour American products and culture down the people's throats. However, our "compassionate" president obviously can't state that we are in war on culture so he will continue to bang the terror drum (especially because he gains voters when people think they are in danger.)
If this is so, he has just given Osama bin Laden the proof that we are in a war against Islam. And if so, we are definitely not safer now since we have a president who will continue to attack those "parts of the world" that he sees as being places that accept terror (which are actually just places that have different cultural and religious beliefs than us, and which feel threatened by our hegemonic actions towards them.)
In actuality, we are much less safe with Bush as president because not only does he not understand the roots of terrorism, his method of waging war is actually stirring up the roots of terrorism, making it more likely by his attack on other cultures.
This idea of a war on culture fits with McLellan's comments yesterday...
"I don't think you can expect that there will ever be a formal surrender or a treaty signed like we have in wars past," Mr. McClellan said. "That's what he was talking about. It requires a generational commitment to win this war on terrorism."
Of course there won't be a formal surrender... we'll know we've won when the whole world looks, talks and acts like our country. Until then -- if we actually achieve that surrender -- with foreign policies like Bush's we will most likely see an exponential increase in terrorism as people resort to the last means possible -- in the face of our military might -- to combat our attack on their culture.
¶ 5:14 PM
