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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group
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To: FaultLine who wrote (73585)2/13/2003 1:59:28 PM
From: paul_philp  Read Replies (1) of 281500
 
It is my nature to seek the general principals behind apparent conflict. My theory is that FADG (and the world) is experiencing massive cognitive dissonance these days. In the US, 50% of the population thinks that they are already at war and 50% believe that the presidents policies are going to cause war. This ambiguous war is a remarkable. Those who think we are at war will see the opposition as weakening the country and thus strengthening the enemy. Those that perceive that the president is about to cause war see that the current security will end with a bloody war on US soil. How can this difference not cause tremendous tension. This is quite different from the Vietnam War schism. With the Vietnam War, people disagreed about the justification for the war but not the reality of war.

This is not a simple intellectual position but people's lived experience of the world - it is neither conceptual nor a partisan opinion - it is people's reality. With this level of cognitive dissonance, people speak different languages while using the same words. I believe this is what is happening with France. They don't understand that the Bush administration is already at war. For the Bushies, why would you even have this level of conversation, in war you don't take your battle plans to committee and to the French, not yet at war, you do everything you can to avoid going to war.

Sadly, I think that the perception that the US is not at war will not be tenable much longer.

Paul
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