The So Called War on Terror is for Weaklings, Matt Stoller

[seasat]

http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/5/30/14359/8492">(Link to MYDD blog)

Any framework for looking at global politics has to have a mechanism for judging success and failure. It has to self-correct, or it is not stable. Containment contained, and if it did not, the course of action - localized hot wars - made sense. The Cold War kept a geopolitical struggle from destroying ourselves. It was understood to be 'cold' by nature, and keeping it cold was a good metaphor for thinking about the concept of mutually assured destruction.

The war on terror doesn't have a self-corrective mechanism. The only metric for success is arrogant certitude on the part of global elites and fear on the part of everyone else. If we are afraid and Bush acts fearless, the war on terror is going well. That is a false metaphor, and it is the framework of the weak.

Now I am not arguing that the war on terror doesn't have rules, or that terrorism is to be coddled. I am arguing that the war on terror is a framework that values self-delusion, certitude, stubbornness, and weakness.

During this so-called war on terror, we haven't caught Osaba bin Laden. The number of terrorist incidents has dramatically increased since 2001. Global warming and pandemics are threatening our very way of life, fiscal imbalances threaten to wreck the global economy, the government is cooking the economic books, and you can top that off with a severe and looming energy crisis for good measure. Oh, and the Constitution has been eviscerated, we went to war based on lies without politicla consequences, and the military is being ruined.

Y'all need to read the entire post. Matt nails something that many have expressed here at the DU. The "War on Terror" has become the latest bait and switch by the elite to keep the rest of us in line while they continue their power play. I've often compared the Repug vision to that of a feudal state with corporations replacing royalty. It is the same old game that they've played out over the millennia. I pray that Matt is right about the availability of information through the internet working to bring this sham down.

[panader0]

1. If there is medium to expose the sham, it is certainly the internet

and DU is in the vanguard.