"Yeah.. we did the same thing for 2 1/2 years from Sept, 1939 until we were attacked on Dec 7th, 1941.
And before that, we did the very same thing from 1914 to 1917.
Years of watching the "house" burn down in Europe.
And now the very same kinds of totalitarian inspired forces, PUBLICLY SWORN TO WAGE WAR UPON US FOREVER, are burning down the house in the Middle East in order to establish a "home turf" from which to reach out and wage that war against us."
Just once I'd like to read a response from you that discussed probabilities and realities rather than fears. It's really not that complex.
Were WW1 and WW11 world wars that changed the world? Yes.
Were the opposing forces in those wars fairly evenly matched in terms of military power? Yes.
Do the forces that launched 9/11 present anything close to that kind of a threat? NOT EVEN CLOSE. Not .0000001% as close.
Do those forces and those who align themselves have goals that, if realized, would threaten our way of life? Yes.
Even though they have very little military power should we deal with them and oppose them in every way possible? Yes.
What's the best way to deal with the actual threat they present?
It's certainly not by occupying Iraq. That's the concept you just can't seem to get. You talk about "losing" to the extremists as if the Iraq war is a war between the forces of good and evil when we're primarily fighting and killing Iraqis who, because of very understandable rationales, don't want us there, don't want us running around with guns and shooting, arresting and ordering them around, and want to be free to determine their own destiny without interference from a bunch of infidels.
You talk about how Iraq is a stand against terrorists when Iraq is a boon to terrorists.
You talk about Iraq becoming a haven for terrorists to establish training camps when Iraq is currently the optimal live training camp for those who are learning, and have learned, how to overcome our best defenses and attack American soldiers.
You talk about fighting them "there" instead of "here" when it's obvious to any observer that our borders are wide open and that any organization with the will and a few bucks could shoot up, bomb or booby trap American facilities and American citizens quite easily, and when "winning" in Iraq or, in fact, occupying the entire Muslim world would not prevent attacks on America or Americans. It would, in fact, encourage such attacks.
You just DON'T get it. When you have a legitimate threat you don't run off shouting "we're doomed kill everyone who might be dangerous." You evaluate the threat, you react appropriately and intelligently and you think long term. Sometimes you cannot immediately remove the threat and in that instance you live with it. If it bites you then you take the bite and keep on doing the smart thing. If you panic and overreact you will not help yourself.
And, whatever else you do, you don't act in ways that will empower those who threaten you, alienate those who are best positioned to help you, and give credibility to those who say that you deserve to be threatened.
But maybe you think I'm wrong. I'll tell you what, if you disagree then instead of responding with more warnings of what "they" want to do to us, how about responding with a post telling us what it is that the war in Iraq has done to stop "them" from gaining credibility, training in the art of war, and gaining popularity among the populations of the middle east. You might also address the effect the war has had in sucking away the human and intelligence resources that could have gone into targeting them specifically. And then you might want to explain how a generation of Iraqi children, many of whom have seen their mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters gunned down, blown up and taken away in handcuffs never to be seen again, will respond when they reach an age where they can hold a rifle, strap on a bomb or cross the Mexican or Canadian border.
Your, and Bush's, reaction to the "threat of extremism" creates extremism. In that sense you could, in fact, create a conflict of civilizations given enough time and more of the same.
Most of us, however, would like to let them solve their own problems without our "killing you for your own good" help. Most of us would like to direct our resources to cutting out the cancer instead of killing off the hosts of the cancer. Most of us believe that given time and experience Muslim populations will reject the extremists, even those among them who now hold some idealized view of what life under extremists would be like. You see, for them as well as for us reality is a great teacher. Ed |
