And further more...
This is part two of my indignant outrage, which appears to be a day late and a dollar short: CNN has a Time Magazine article that power in Washington is being returned to what Time calls the "realists." This is interesting to me, because I know that the article is talking about a return to a more balanced, multilateral approach to foreign affairs, but the term "realism" is misleading. In political science, "realism" refers to the very school of thought that informs the neoconservatives when it comes to international relations. The basic tenets are simple: The world is dangerous, allies cannot be counted on, and power must be taken WHILE YOU ALREADY HAVE IT. In other words, it doesn't do you much good to start digging a well while you are thirsty, right? What realism as a political theory does not focus on is alliances, international law, and globalism, which in this writer's opinion are the solution to our woes.
See, the real problem is fear. Our country has bred a culture of terror right here on its own soil: We have sensationalized problems that are arguably universal to all humanity, and we have built a culture out of trying to eliminate them.
Take terrorism, for instance. This is clearly our cultural boogeyman right now, the modern day version of the commie, and the nazi before that, repeat ad infinitum through history. But really, what is terrorism? One political analyst on NPR listed at least five kinds of terrorism, including political terrorism, religious terrorism, criminal terrorism, pathological terrorism, and acts of war terrorism. Political and religious terror are very well known, and all I need to do is remind you of the Mafia to give you a hint of criminal terror, and the unibomber to clue you in to pathological terror. That leaves terror as an act of war, and this is where the American public is way off. Let's look at some examples:
Hamas is a tremendously well organized group of armed men that occupy a large region in Lebanon. They are adversaries of Isreal, and are purportedly fighting for Lebanon, though the Lebanese government is just as terrified of them as anyone else. Every so often, they commit what Isreal and most of the world would consider acts of terrorism: They have dedicated members blow themselves up in a crowded resturant. They use guerilla tactics, and are only capable of inflicting small amounts of damage at a time. In direct conflict with the Israeli military, they are miniscule. So how did they get so powerful?
By targeting civilians.
And this is what makes them terrorists, in most people's opinion. But consider this: During the "shock and awe" phase of our military campaign in Iraq, we essentially bombed the living shit out of Baghdad for over twenty four hours. On the record, we struck at only military targets, but we also blew up mosques, hospitals, and a large number of civilians. We refer to these civilian deaths as "collateral damage" and unfortunate tactical accidents, but realistically, the number of innocent women and children America has blown up at war time dwarfs all of the civilians killed in acts of terror by about 100 to 1. So how come we are the good guys?
Here is the fact of the matter: Terrorists at war time are essentially armies that are too small to inflict any real damage. Now, this is not to say that it doesn't hurt like hell to have two thousand people die in a terrorist attack like 9/11, but if anyone truly thinks that Al Qaeda has the ability to defeat America in a standing war, then I have some wonderful swamp land in Florida I'd like to sell them.
So, unable to defeat us in a standing war, they resort to scaring the hell out of us, and they have been wildly successful in that front, partially because we so thoroughly enjoy being frightened. Tell the truth: Didn't you rubberneck just a little bit when the trade centers were hit. There was horror, sure, and I feel terrible for the people who lost loved ones, but for the vast majority of Americans, I think it was a spectacle, a horrifying traffic accident to crane their necks at. So we went to war with Afghanistan, still very clearly the good guys in a scary, scary world. We rode that buzz all the way through two years in Iraq before gas prices and boredom caused us to stop supporting the war.
Now, the fear is starting to wear off. There are two things that scare me right now: The threat of a nuclear attack on our soil, and North Korea invading the south. It is really quite simple to prevent the first thing; instead of retarding around in countries WITHOUT nuclear potential, we should be spending all of our resources securing the SOURCES OF URANIUM that has potential to be weaponized. This is not hard to do; we know where it is. It is really hard to make a weaponized nuke, even a dirty one. If we remove the key ingredient, our terrorist friends are fucked.
North Korea is stickier. Too bad we are already in two standing wars, or else we actually might have been able to help the South Koreans if anything went wrong.
Anyways, my hand is tired, and this blog is about acupuncture, and I guess, novel writing. But I mean, shit guys. C'mon.
See, the real problem is fear. Our country has bred a culture of terror right here on its own soil: We have sensationalized problems that are arguably universal to all humanity, and we have built a culture out of trying to eliminate them.
Take terrorism, for instance. This is clearly our cultural boogeyman right now, the modern day version of the commie, and the nazi before that, repeat ad infinitum through history. But really, what is terrorism? One political analyst on NPR listed at least five kinds of terrorism, including political terrorism, religious terrorism, criminal terrorism, pathological terrorism, and acts of war terrorism. Political and religious terror are very well known, and all I need to do is remind you of the Mafia to give you a hint of criminal terror, and the unibomber to clue you in to pathological terror. That leaves terror as an act of war, and this is where the American public is way off. Let's look at some examples:
Hamas is a tremendously well organized group of armed men that occupy a large region in Lebanon. They are adversaries of Isreal, and are purportedly fighting for Lebanon, though the Lebanese government is just as terrified of them as anyone else. Every so often, they commit what Isreal and most of the world would consider acts of terrorism: They have dedicated members blow themselves up in a crowded resturant. They use guerilla tactics, and are only capable of inflicting small amounts of damage at a time. In direct conflict with the Israeli military, they are miniscule. So how did they get so powerful?
By targeting civilians.
And this is what makes them terrorists, in most people's opinion. But consider this: During the "shock and awe" phase of our military campaign in Iraq, we essentially bombed the living shit out of Baghdad for over twenty four hours. On the record, we struck at only military targets, but we also blew up mosques, hospitals, and a large number of civilians. We refer to these civilian deaths as "collateral damage" and unfortunate tactical accidents, but realistically, the number of innocent women and children America has blown up at war time dwarfs all of the civilians killed in acts of terror by about 100 to 1. So how come we are the good guys?
Here is the fact of the matter: Terrorists at war time are essentially armies that are too small to inflict any real damage. Now, this is not to say that it doesn't hurt like hell to have two thousand people die in a terrorist attack like 9/11, but if anyone truly thinks that Al Qaeda has the ability to defeat America in a standing war, then I have some wonderful swamp land in Florida I'd like to sell them.
So, unable to defeat us in a standing war, they resort to scaring the hell out of us, and they have been wildly successful in that front, partially because we so thoroughly enjoy being frightened. Tell the truth: Didn't you rubberneck just a little bit when the trade centers were hit. There was horror, sure, and I feel terrible for the people who lost loved ones, but for the vast majority of Americans, I think it was a spectacle, a horrifying traffic accident to crane their necks at. So we went to war with Afghanistan, still very clearly the good guys in a scary, scary world. We rode that buzz all the way through two years in Iraq before gas prices and boredom caused us to stop supporting the war.
Now, the fear is starting to wear off. There are two things that scare me right now: The threat of a nuclear attack on our soil, and North Korea invading the south. It is really quite simple to prevent the first thing; instead of retarding around in countries WITHOUT nuclear potential, we should be spending all of our resources securing the SOURCES OF URANIUM that has potential to be weaponized. This is not hard to do; we know where it is. It is really hard to make a weaponized nuke, even a dirty one. If we remove the key ingredient, our terrorist friends are fucked.
North Korea is stickier. Too bad we are already in two standing wars, or else we actually might have been able to help the South Koreans if anything went wrong.
Anyways, my hand is tired, and this blog is about acupuncture, and I guess, novel writing. But I mean, shit guys. C'mon.
posted by Dr. Sun Si Miao at 8:41 AM
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