War Pheromones

[H2O Man]

If a person decides to swat a hornets’ nest with a stick, there is a very good chance that she/he will learn a harsh lesson: the hornets will rapidly swarm, and sting that person to protect their nest. In fact, the hornets will likely sting anyone with that person, as well as unsuspecting people in the general area.

President Obama’s policy of bombing Isis is, in my opinion, similar to the swatting of a hornets’ nest. As has happened in the past, when the US attacks people in their own lands, they tend to attack back. This has included attacking US forces, those who are there supporting us, and those who simply are in the region.

If we consider 9/11, for example, we see that Usama bin Laden had demanded that US forces leave Mecca and the surrounding area. This is not to imply this was the only reason for the attack, much less a justification. But it is one of the primary reasons that al Qaeda opted to attack the United States, inside of the United States.

Although President Obama maintains that there will be no US “boots on the ground” in Iraq or Syria, there are already special forces in place. Once Isis reacts to the current bombing with an attack -- most likely on US interests outside of the country -- the demand for retribution will bring American troops into the war. It would be foolish to think that if we venture down this path, that we will avoid reaching that destination.

Perhaps the most troubling dynamic at this time is the number of Americans who express support for the bombing of Isis, while not believing that it will prove successful. Like Isis, they are responding to the pheromones of war, only as a docile swarm.

[scarletwoman]

1. Truth.

I like your phrase, "the pheromones of war." Yes, indeed.

[H2O Man]

11. Thank you.

The news media seems to be the transmission system.

[Jackpine Radical]

2. There is an old principle taught to fledgeling officers at West Point.

They are told that if they find themselves in dire circumstances and have no idea what to do, they should do SOMETHING. Doing anything is better than doing nothing.

I have always considered this one of the stupidest maxims I had ever heard. However, it is what we always do in crises. Do SOMETHING! Make it big, like our reaction to 9-11 (TSA, Homeland Security, masking tape, invade 2 countries, make Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo wortldwide household names, bankrupt ourselves with tax cuts & multi-trillion-dollar military expenditures and all the rest of it.

We will hit the hornets' nest, we will be stung, and we will unleash a new wave of total craziness in our outrage at being stung.

And what I just realized as I was typing this is that most likely no candidate less hawkish than Hillary has a prayer in 2016.

[KoKo]

10. Possibility of Neocons working with RW Fundamentalists on Armageddon?

This too shall come to pass....from the Book of Revelations.

OMG....I hope it hasn't gone that far...

Some say it's the Planetary Alignments warned about for years before.... Our fight with Pluto in Capricorn...not resolved until early 2020's. The Fight of the People against the enormous Power Structures now in place Globally. MIC & Media Industrial Complex.

One can take their pick in a world gone mad. What would seem like "tinfoil hat" sometimes seems more real an explanation than what we are witnessing.

[H2O Man]

12. "Do SOMETHING" !

It would be refreshing if that "something" was to quietly consider the obvious connection between US policy in the Middle East and the never-ending cycles of violence. Yet when one considers why this never seems to be the nation's leaders' response, there are but two unpleasant options: either they are incapable of such insight; or, they are fully aware, but consider it an acceptable price to pay for access to the region's natural resources.

[Jackpine Radical]

14. Or, to shamelessly paraphrase Jay Gould,

you can always hire half the politician class to mobilize the rage and fear of the public against any rational and deliberate actions proposed by the other half.

I think there are certain topics, such as the recent events in Gaza, and now ISIS/ISIL/Whatever, that politicians view as suicidal to get on the wrong side of.

[RufusTFirefly]

3. Mecca and Medina

My guess is that only 1 in 100 Americans (and perhaps 1 in 10 on DU) know the backstory behind U.S. forces in Mecca and Medina and how it enraged and offended radical Muslims. Just as you say, it by no means justifies the heinous attack that followed, but at least it provides an alternative explanation to "They hate us for our freedoms."

[H2O Man]

13. Right.

If it were as simple as the radical Muslims hating "freedom," it would be rather difficult to explain why they fought so hard to expel the USSR from Afghanistan.

[Uncle Joe]

4. I believe it will prove successful, here is one micro example.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025599595

"Maybe my voice can make them think again."

Abu Omar initially tried to defend the group's atrocities -- including crucifixions, beheadings and indiscriminate killings. But eventually, the brutally became too much for him.

"I used to hope that they would fix their mistakes," he said. "If they had, it wouldn't be like this."

When the United States and Arab partners started pounding the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa last week, many militants scattered. And Abu Omar found an opportunity to flee.

(snip)

"I saw a 70-year-old sheikh killed in front of me," he said. "The 'Islamic State' can't continue like this. ... There are a lot of youth who are joining -- 14, 15 years old. Maybe my voice can make them think again."

We don't allow hornets to build their nests just anywhere without using measures to eliminate said nest, I wouldn't recommend swatting one, but a garden hose with a strong stream of water can do the trick.

I view the alternative of doing nothing and/or totally pulling out as some advocate to only increase the probabilities of more hornet's nests spreading to ever widening areas of that critical region and perhaps beyond.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025528822

So if we pulled out of the Middle East, what would the probabilities be?

Thanks for the thread, H2O Man.

[H2O Man]

16. Thanks.

I would be pleased to see a positive outcome. Obviously, I have serious doubts as to the effectiveness of the President's plan. I'm not totally opposed to the use of military force in all situations, though. However, in this instance, the failures began with the Bush-Cheney invasion of Iraq in 2003, and was compounded with that administration's lack of a coherent plan to rebuild the political structure within Iraq, made the current violence the most likely of outcomes.

[Uncle Joe]

18. I agree, H2O Man, Cheney/Bush left a mess.

They should never have invaded Iraq in the first place and then only compounded their immoral war by disbanding the Iraqi Army creating chaos and setting the stage for disenfranchising and alienating the Sunni populace; many of whom joined the extremist faction that we're battling today.

[KoKo]

5. Why do you believe so many Americans support this, though.

We've been lied to a Second Time to get us into War in ME and Cold War with Russia. The Khorosan threat is not real as Greenwald and National Security Experts now speaking out have shown.

So why do you believe people still buy this? And, why the resistance to Syria bombing a year ago and the sudden rush to war with acceptance by so many now? They tried talking about Assad gassing his own people (turns out that wasn't entirely true) and that seemed to horrify many...but, not enough for Obama to go for it.

What has changed? Was it that the PR Campaign is so much better better when ISIS in their White Toyota Trucks came riding through as "The Men in Black" with flags flying in such a theatrical way seeming straight out of Hollywood production followed by the the two beheadings that did it? We've seen beheadings before-- Philip Berg, etc. We saw Saddam and his sons displayed brutal ways along with Gadaffi's capture.

Plus, the movies today are far more gruesome and violent than those beheadings were. Even our Nightly News and Cable shows bloodied bodies from crimes scenes and other horrors ...so people should be even more used to it than years ago. So is it just a sudden lust for war because people are angry about other things here in their current lifestyles with our country not in the recovery we'd hoped for and want to take it out on "those terrorists over there?" Why the sudden rush? Why the cautions of "endless war?"

[F4lconF16]

6. To answer part of your question

I think that people understand the difference between television/movies and real beheadings. There's a gut level reaction looking at war pictures, or other traumatic things. There is a reason that the picture of the young Vietnamese girl running naked and burned down the road had such a wrenching impact on so many...

If pictures had only the same impact as violent television and movies, then the MSM would not be trying so hard to censor war journalism and photography. The thing is, they do have an effect on the vast majority of the population, and therefore we're never exposed to the realities of what we're doing to people and countries in the middle east and the rest of the world. Things like that aren't real. That type of stuff only happens in the movies.

[HereSince1628]

7. Unfortunately, as a nation we citizens react to things personally, at gut level

rather than as a great nation.

The State Dept. puts warnings on travel, people go to the place, get their throats cut, video provided.

Horrifying, yes. A threat to the existence of the United States? Not so much...

What more than our national hubris, the belief that Americans should be free to go anywhere, was actually at risk?

We've been played by the bellicose.

A g a i n

[KoKo]

9. Fair Enough....but the photos of children from GAZA Bombings

were horrific showing the bloodied, maimed and dead. One doctor at the Hospital was crying over the injuries that he saw with bombs that shoot out metal pieces which embed themselves all over the bodies of the victims causing terrible pain and suffering. Yet, there was little reaction here. We even invited Bibi back to DC to give another joint Congressional speech. The journalists who were beheaded were not children and horrific as it was...they were serving as journalists in a war area, captured and imprisoned (not allowed to be ransomed by their families) and therefore not innocents caught up in a situation beyond their control.

Still it doesn't explain why the news of Assad Gassing his own People (including children) with photos of victims writhing in pain didn't get approval for our bombing the first time around...and yet two beheadings of journalists somehow rushes us into bombing Syria. So, either they knew that Assad didn't gas his people and didn't want to go that far and get found out....or they had to find another opportunity to whip people up into war. Was it the journalists beheading or the Lie about Khorasan sending people with explosives onto planes and ready to invade our cities attack our children in the night (as Senator DiFi seemed to want to infer) that did it? Yet, that seems to turn out to be a lie also. But, they went with it and here we are bombing Syria. Although we can't get anyone else to bomb Syria with us...because? Because of the Lie?

[H2O Man]

17. Great questions.

I think that there American public has simply become conditioned to the point that they accept war as the solution to problems. There are, of course, a wide range of factors that have combined to create this acceptance of warfare -- the news media being perhaps the most obvious. But it is obviously more than that.

I want to think about this more, and then attempt to give a more complete answer. I appreciate that you raise these valuable questions.

[seveneyes]

8. Heart of Lothian

It's six o'clock in the tower blocks
Stalagmites of culture shock
And the trippers of the light fantastic, bow down, hoe-down
Spray their pheromones on this perfume uniform

[liberal_at_heart]

15. K&R