Terror Perception Gap
The recent Dubai Ports World controversy has exposed a major gap in the President's viewpoint versus the American public's regarding the terrorist threat. Bemoaning the collapse of the deal with the UAE company, the President today expressed his frustration:
"I'm concerned about a broader message this issue could send to our friends and allies around the world, particularly in the Middle East. In order to win the war on terror, we have got to strengthen our relationships and friendships with moderate Arab countries in the Middle East."So the President's main concern is fighting the war on terror. Americans, on the other hand, aren't really so much concerned with the war on terror - they're primarily concerned with keeping terrorists away from them.
posted by ziel | 3/10/2006 06:30:00 PM
8 Comments:
America can not win a war on "terror" for the simple fact that terror is a verb. You have no defined enemy(Nazi) much less territory(Europe). Because of the lack of these seemingly simple things we find a "sleeping giant" awakened and blinded by a self imposed correctness. We are stabbing for OBL while not realizing we are fighting a multi-headed snake. To put it in come sense terms, verbs are actions, humans are nouns. Nouns can not defeat verbs only defend against or at best react to them. Verbs do not sign peace treaties on the decks of naval ships they run rafts loaded with explosives into them. The closest we have come to "terrorism" is Imperial Japan who swore to fight to the last person. The only thing that prevented that was the overwhelming sense of self preservation and destruction that occurred after the dropping of the bombs. Since we have no defined battlefield that can't occur. Until America wakes up and declares absolute war on any "militant Muslim nation" and lets the military do its job and not try and run a war from Washington D.C. or pressrooms, we will continue to waste lives, time and money. Common sense would reason that if America had been attacked on 9-11 by 19 men wearing blue shirts with red armbands we would be on the look-out for people wearing that combination but because we are afraid we may offend all Muslims by saying we are looking for the ones that ruin their religion, we check ever tenth person on a subway so we are not profiling. Our enemy has no respect for our kindness, tolerance or understanding. In fact they see it as a weakness they can exploit to destroy us. Please don't stick your head in the sand, they want you dead, not just our leaders. So when fighting an undefined enemy who will not show itself in one place, innocent people will suffer because of that enemies pure cowerdness. They will not even show their faces on the internet while they saw another human beings head off. Much less show up on a battlefield or defend their land. They are not fighting to defend land or their famlies or even their relegion. They fight out of a pure unfounded hate for America that has been taught to them for years by demon eyed men in black robes and tunics. Until the innocent fear their own end will they quickly help you smoke out the ones who mean us harm. Sounds harsh but almost 3000 American innocents where killed in one day. We should have leveled Afghanistan and Iraq with non-stop bombing for 30 days before any American troops touched the ground. Not strategic targets or smart bombs, but total hell unleashed on the just and unjust. At the end of that horrible idea we either would have killed the ones we needed to, or the innocent ones left would not be willing to hide anyone out of pure self-preservation. They would have given up OBL for the promise of another day.
I hate war to my very soul. If another person never died due to war I could think of nothing better, but as a human being you need to face the fact that with this enemy there is no chance for reason so it leaves the only choice of kill or be killed. Do what horrible things need to be done and get it over, or they, and I mean militant Muslims, will see to your death if you don't see to theirs. Sorry. Truth hurts, death hurts worse.
I can't say your prescription is off base - I think that's why we are not being successful and also why fighting this as a war is a mistake. We - the US - are simply not going to take the steps you've outlined. Even after 9/11, we were transfixed by the Taliban's stadium executions of female adultresses . Our context for these women is Mary Magdalene - we were not about to start carpet bombing them.
Since we can't wage real, we ought not to wage war at all, and instead fortify our territory. I think there's a lot more stomach here for profiling than Shermanesque total war.
I'm not against trying to establish some friends in that part of the world but do we have to start by handing over our ports to people whose loyalties are still undetermined?? The Bush administration's failure to recognize how this announcement, and others before it, would be perceived and opposed by Americans is mind boggling. And his stubborness in "staying the course", at first thought to be refreshing, is turning out to be a major flaw.
I believe terror is a noun, BTW.
The Bush administration's failure to recognize how this announcement, and others before it, would be perceived and opposed by Americans is mind boggling.
Yup, the cluelessness is without limit. You'd almost think the administration is filled with inexperienced political appointees incapable of bringing any effective historical context or managerial savvy to the decision-making process.
"We should have leveled Afghanistan and Iraq with non-stop bombing for 30 days"
Putting aside the fact that attacking Iraq at all was an act of monumental stupidity, re bombing Afghanistan, already one of the most bombed places in the world, would have availed little except murder. OBL would have still escaped and would have a plethora of volunteers.
"So when fighting an undefined enemy who will not show itself in one place, innocent people will suffer because of that enemies pure cowerdness (sic)."
Unless you are commenting after patrol in the Sunni Triangle, your statement above takes a lot of nerve. I think Islam is worthless, but those lads risk their lives without all the high tech gear our boys have. Just because they don't wear orange hunting jackets does not mean they are avoiding danger.
You use the word "we" a lot but phrases like letting "the military do its job" leads me to believe you intend to be poolside during the crusade.
We could have had victory easily enough after 911. All we had to do was fence the southern border and check everyone coming in and expel anyone who did not belong here. Also, we needed to bring the fleets and armies and air force home thus denying whomever you define as the enemy a target rich environment.
Oh, you could say what about oil. Yeah, the world could threaten us with that weapon as we would not have our military out there, but oil is fungible resource and those countries make money selling it and do not care to whom it may eventually go.
Richard
American bought, hook, line and sinker from Bush the belief that 911 was an act of war when in fact it was a crime, albeit arguably the greatest one committed in the United States. American seems to be just waking up to what the rest of the world has known for a very long time.
Jimbo - good point, though I would argue it was an act of war but a very limited one. In fact the overthrow of the Taliban was very cathartic though the failure to capture OBL quite disappointing.
I think where we really showed our gullibility was in thinking we could overthrow these terrible governments and establish Madisonian constitutional order.
A couple years ago I was listening to Terry Gross on NPR interviewing Bill Maher - a combination that would normally send me into apoplexy. But Maher said something like "The average Iraqi would rather see Saddam Hussein in power than see his sister walking down the street in a mini-skirt - and I don't think George Bush understands this." I thought that was quite well said.
The think it is more like the average Iraqi would rather see Saddam Hussein in power than see his sister dying in a suicide attack while wearing a mini-skirt.
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