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The War on Terrorism
Posted by michaelvdg in Uncategorized.
May 14th, 2007 | 12 responses
May 14th, 2007 | 12 responses
I posted the following comment in the comment section of my Three Turks planned to attack US Germany bases post.
I agree completely with you when you say that this part of the war on terrorism is going well. Note, I am not saying, I never said, that the war against terrorism is lost. Far from it. We just started fighting that war: it will be a 20 year, probably even 50 year long war. This is something that ‘we’ need to explain to fellow Westerners: the global war against terrorism isn’t a ‘5 year war’ like WW2: it’s a completely different war, albeit against an equally evil enemy.
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12 Responses to “The War on Terrorism”
An astonishingly upbeat assessment without a shred of evidence except that the Iraq war — which is the terrorist hotbed — is by your own acknowledgement a bloody mess.
What are you guys smoking over there?
That’s so disrespectful that I am not even going to answer it. You can disagree with me Shaun, if you do, please make that be known, but to ask what I am smoking is not something I’d expect from a fellow co-blogger.
It is an upbeat assessment.
For all of you who are not holding both fingers in your ears jumping up an down and humming loudly so you cant hear anything anyone else says.
Do so now.
Conservatives tend to be optimistic. When things are bleak we look for the good. We seize on the positive and tend to diminish the negative. Its like you know “The power of positive thinking.”
It keeps us from becoming depressed and ranting non stop about BDS and Oberfuhrer Bush, and the American Taliban and stuff like that.
There is lots of things that point to the success of the war on terror………but I wont name them because you are holding both fingers in your ears, jumping up and down and humming loudly.
But really the stuff he is smoking is better then the stuff your smoking. As the once famous Richard Nixon was oft quoted as saying “Trust me.”
There seems to be an equal need from the anti-war side as from the Bush administration for a simplistic, uniform, no-deviations-allowed narrative.
From the Bush administration, sunshine-and-daisies seems always around the next corner. Setbacks are minor, if they are acknowledged at all.
From the anti-war crowd, any report of progress in any arena (even those remote from Iraq) cannot be tolerated. It must be discredited and the persons reporting it attacked and disparaged.
Frankly, the koolaid appears to be in excessive supply on both extremes.
Jason: true enough. But you have me wondering, do you count me under one of those two extremes?
Obviously not. Your posts show that you are apparently capable of lamenting progress in one arena (Iraq) while acknowledging it in another (broader war on al-Qaeda).
The posts and comments of some other people show a lack of capability or willingness to recognize any complexity. They have to condemn everything as bad no matter what in order to keep the drumbeat going.
Thanks for clearing that up Jason: am a bit walking on my toes
I’m still not sure how these developments have anything to do with a “war” on terror — admittedly it is impossible to know how many plots have been averted by the war aspect, but all these sorts of things are law enforcement related.
I’m also not convinced that increased survelliance and government powers has led to an increase in stopping the plots. Now I’m weird, I didn’t blame the CIA or FBI for 9/11 at all because I always thought they do a generally good job of keeping us safe and occasionally they’ll miss one. The same goes for all the police forces we’re talking about.
What I do know is that over the last few years we’ve seen European home grown terrorists, and now Albanians and Turks. It’s no longer confined to the Arab/Afghani populaces. And we have the Turkish/Kurdish problem, the Iranian problem, and now increasingly the Pakistani problem — all these are not directly related to Al Qaeda but the global war has definitely contributed to the instability.
So personally I am optimistic on the ability of law enforcement to do its job (well half do its job and half rely on the incompetence of the terrorists since most of the time they do something stupid) but gravely worried about the “war” turning half the world into an inferno and inflaming the populaces of traditional allies.
Mikkel makes the important point (If I understand him correctly) that we have to separate the war in Iraq from the ‘war’ on terror.
All but some extreme dreamers among the anti-war crowd reckognize the evils of terrorism and are quite prepared to sturggle against it. The arguments are, thather, about how, when and where.
As MVDG correctly points out, this is a multi decade struggle. A military war such as the one currently in Iraq is simply not sustainable for that amount of time, whether it would be a good or bad thing. The voters in the US and the populace in Iraq eill have their say, whether their voices are right- or wrong-headed according to anyone’s appraisal. Even the war in Afghanistan is iffy as to its long term sustainability.
So, how can terrorism be defeated?
The carrots and sticks notion is excellent, but extremely difficult, partially because it’s so late in coming. Now htat anti-American sentiment is so strong, and the US so indelibly linked to military aggression, the carrots are harder than ever to deliver. Even in its milder forms, the carrots come with cultural attachments despised among the Muslim hierarchy. Wil Saudi Arabia welcome an influx of modernism along with development, or will the terrorists use this as just another rallying call for jihad?
Propoganda? Yes, but only if it’s 10 times more sophisticated and subtle than the Karen Hughes variety. The best propoganda will need to come from other Muslims.
In the decades to come, it will be a mini step by mini step progression, IMO, not some grand and sweeping action that will win the ‘war’.
In the meantime, in order for the US to survive in a recognizable form, we need to take enough attention from terror to take care of some crucial problems at home. Rediscovering that we are not a nation of torturers but a nation of justice is high up on the to-do list.
BTW, since terrorism is a handy tool, it makes no sense to talk about defeating it. We can strive only to reduce it to manageable levels, like other forms of violence.
As has been frequently noted, both here and elsewhere, terror is a tactic, and as such, as mikkel implies and domajot notes, cannot itself be “defeated” within the usual parameters of the term.
However a question for the group: Do you think there is any way to make terror less effective as a tactic, and therefore less attractive as such?
That seems to me to be the discussion we, and everyone else should be having.
Mike have you ever earned your Medal of Freedom yet, from the bush administration? They are giving them away, and your blogging in support for this stupid war of error, is amazing.
Man you support this war more than the republicans in America, Bush ought to give you a green card or a cabinet officer or something.
“A German newspaper reported this week that five men were detained but released for allegedly surveying a U.S. military installation in Hanau.”
“The men were released because there was no evidence they’d done anything illegal, the report stated.”
If these are the same men, I do not understand how you missed this. If the miss was intentional, you should go Blog For FoxNews, you would fit in perfectly with their camp.
If you missed, Here is some information that you may want to go checkout for further info about your story.
http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=53388&archive=true
Citizen Kang said:
“Do you think there is any way to make terror less effective as a tactic, and therefore less attractive as such?”
That’s probably the most important quesion of our times and the hardest to answer.
Terror terrorizes, there is no getting away from that.
In my gut, I think the best way to react is to refuse to allow acts of terrorism to change who we are in any significatn way.
Adjustments are unavoidable in terms such as safety measures. Shifts in basic principles, like humane treatment of others – that should never be allowed to happen. If we destroy our basic principles, we destroy who we are, doing the terrorists’ job for them.