We Have Met the Existential Threat, and It Is Us

(Haven't been too active here - most of my online activity is via my phone, and DU isn't super mobile friendly. That said, here's my latest piece from BuzzFlash/TruthOut, and it isn't bad. )

Let me make a bold prediction. ISIS will never invade the United States. We will never have a Red Dawn moment, when jihadist troops parachute into sleepy, Midwestern towns. The Wolverines, alas, will never be called out of retirement. Not everyone seems to see it that way, as might be gathered from the fact that we are now bombing multiple countries, in the belief that an insurgency can be neutralized by purely military means. The circle of violence widens, as Israel has decided to get in on the fun, by shooting down a Syrian jet. Oh, and the bombing doesn’t really seem to be working.

Better writers than I have argued that bombs alone are not going to bring about an end to the situation in Iraq and Syria, so I will leave that argument aside, beyond noting that it would be neat if it could receive more than passing acknowledgement from our bold and fearless leaders. Instead, let’s talk about ISIS. As is standard in beginning such a discussion, insert the obligatory disclaimer about them being Very Bad People. They are to Islam what the Westboro Baptist Church is to Christianity, were the WBC given military grade weapons. Very Bad People, yes?

You know who else is very bad? Joseph Kabila, president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Myanmar was run by very bad people until they became a kind-of sort-of democracy and now we like them. Iran is very bad except in those cases in which we need their help and support and then we’re totally cool and high-fives all around. Bashar al-Assad is a very bad person and we’re definitely not on his side except we sort of need to bomb a few of those very bad people who are rebelling against his very bad government.

There’s a whole lot of very bad people out there, is what I’m getting at.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want this to turn into an isolationist argument, claiming that since there are so many bad people and states out there we really shouldn’t do anything at all. I may have a marked preference for non-military solutions to international issues, but total inaction is not my default setting. My question is, of all the bad people out there, why ISIS? Ah yes, they’re an existential threat.

“Existential threat.” Roll those words around on your tongue for a bit. Sure does sound well, you know, threatening. Problem is, once you realize, as few who utter the phrase apparently have, that words mean things, it all starts to fall apart. Existential threat. A threat to our existence. Our very existence is being threatened because ISIS is going to literally destroy the United States of America.

Right.

Refer back to my opening line.

There is, of course, no small irony in that the rise of ISIS was enabled by a series of blunders from our government. From the punch-yourself-in-the-face idiocy of disbanding the Iraqi Army, way back in 2003, all the way up to our current administration’s continued support of Nouri al-Maliki, whose treatment of Iraq’s Sunni minority gave ISIS fertile ground for rapid expansion, our fingerprints are all over this mess. We spawned what we now blithely declare to be a threat to our very existence.

<snip>

There’s an old H. P. Lovecraft story, “The Outsider,” which rocked my world when I was ten. It relies on pretty simple twist, but packs a bit of a punch. If you haven’t read it, take a look, since I’m about to spoil it. The gist is, a guy grows up, alone, in an empty castle. Eventually, tiring of his life, he escapes and wanders into a house where a crowd of people are having a dinner party. To his dismay, his appearance is met with screams and panic. Then he turns and, in a doorway sees a horrifying, decayed, parody of a man. Trying to flee, he inadvertently stumbles toward the thing and one outstretched hand brushes its fingers. The kicker, of course, is that he touches not fingers, but the polished glass surface of a mirror. He is the monster from which all have fled.

I would suggest, when we start raving about threats to our very existence, that it might do us good to take a long look in the mirror and see what stares back at us.

We have met the existential threat, and it is us.

Full piece here:

http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/we-have-met-the-existential-threat-and-it-is-us