Must Read: Greider on dangers of War on Terror

[Armstead]

This is an article that needs to be read by as many people as possible. Once again William Greider sums it all up brilliantly.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0604-12.htm

Published in the June 21, 2004 issue of The Nation
Under the Banner of the 'War' on Terror
by William Greider

When President Bush called Americans to enlist in his "war on terror," very few citizens could have grasped the all-encompassing consequences of the proposition. The terrifying events of 9/11 were like a blinding flash, benumbing the country with a sudden knowledge of unimagined dangers. Strong action was recommended, skeptics were silenced and a shallow sense of unity emerged from the shared vulnerabilities. Nearly three years later, the enormity of Bush's summons to open-ended "war" is more obvious. It overwhelmed the country, in fact deranged society's normal processes and purposes with a brilliantly seductive political message: Terror pre-empts everything else.

What this President effectively accomplished was to restart the cold war, albeit under a new rubric. The justifying facts are different and smaller, but the ideological dynamics are remarkably similar--a total commitment of the nation's energies to confront a vast, unseen and malignant adversary. Fanatical Muslims replaced Soviet Communists and, like the reds, these enemies could be anywhere, including in our midst (they may not even be Muslims, but kindred agents who likewise "hate" us and oppose our values). Like the cold war's, the logic of this new organizing framework can be awesomely compelling to the popular imagination because it runs on fear--the public's expanding fear of potential dangers. The political commodity of fear has no practical limits. The government has the ability to manufacture more....

CUT

...My advice for Americans is also an urgent warning: Get a grip, before it is too late. Take a hard look at your own fears, reconsider the probabilities of danger in the larger context of life's many risks and obstacles. The trauma of 9/11 stimulated infinite possibilities for worry--some quite plausible, but most inspired by remote what-if fantasies. A society bingeing on fear makes itself vulnerable to far more profound forms of destruction than terror attacks. The "terrorism war," like a nostalgic echo of the cold war, is using these popular fears to advance a different agenda--the re-engineering of American life through permanent mobilization. The transformation is well under way. The consequences, if left unchallenged, will be very difficult to reverse. Let us count them.....

MUCH MORE

[PROGRESSIVE1]

1. He's right in that we CANNOT live our lives under a rock.

Just look at Spain, they took to the streets to show their anger and resolve after the Train attack. Americans hide and contemplate how their lives are over. America needs a reality check.

[Village Idiot]

2. Good Warning:

My advice for Americans is also an urgent warning: Get a grip, before it is too late.

The War on Vapour will never end. They will take your rights, your guns, your families and your souls if you are not careful...

[Armstead]

14. War on Vapor

So true. You can't defeat "terror." if they make that the enemy it wilkl truly be a neverending war.

[IrateCitizen]

3. Yup. Greider nails it again.

One thing that I can't help but notice is Greider's allusion to the idea that we really are a nation of wimps. I'd tend to concur with him on that remark.

Let's just look at the "overwhelming power" of our military. We're so overwhelming, that we have to go after a minor despot in charge of a run-down military in order to show how "strong" we are. Then, after we get rid of him, we can't even successfully occupy the country. Compared to the ancient Romans, we don't even deserve to be called an "empire".

If anything, this puts on display how WEAK our international position really is. And this "false bravado" carries on at home as well, with the fear of dissent, fear of another attack (when you're still more likely to die by lightning strike or drowning), fear of the "other". Hell, as a society, we're afraid of our own damned shadow. We act like 9/11 was the greatest spectacle of death and destruction in history -- when in reality its just a blip on the screen compared to the bombing campaigns of WWII, let alone the destruction on the European Eastern Front.

[Armstead]

4. Exposing our weakness

I've thought of that too.

Part of US power has alweays been based on the perception that when push comes to shove we are capable of enforcing our will militarily. Not a great basis for power, but it is the basis of backing up our more positive initiatives too. And if exercised responsibly, can actually contribute to peace.

But the morass in Iraq has exposed that as largely illusory. Sure we can invade and depose, but we can't do it with impunity.

I believe that has been duly noted abroad, and may well be exploited in the future.

[IrateCitizen]

7. If you want an excellent read on how weak we really are...

I would suggest After the Empire by Emmanuel Todd. FWIW, the author (a Frenchman) predicted the imminent demise of the Soviet Union in a book he had published in 1976.

Here's the very last paragraph of the book, not to spoil the ending....

In the twentieth century, no country succeeded in increasing its power through military buildups or war. France, Germany, Japan and Russia all suffered heavy losses in that game. Americans came out of the twentieth century winners because for a long time they knew how to refuse getting too involved in military conflicts in the Old World. Let us follow the example of that early successful America. Let us dare to become strong by refusing militarism and concentrating instead on the economic and social problems within our societies. Let the present America expend what remains of its energy, if that's what it wants to do, on "war on terrorism" -- a substitute battle for the perpetuation of a hegemony that it has already lost. If it stubbornly decides to continue showing off its supreme power, it will only end up exposing to the world its powerlessness.

Of course, Todd devotes a lot of time uncovering how the weakness of America is not only military, but economic.

[DinahMoeHum]

5. Remember the names - Baader-Meinhof? Red Brigades?

The Europeans were dealing with these terrorist groups in the 1970's.

By the 1980's, ain't nobody heard of them.

The Europeans could teach us a few things about coping with this threat.


:bounce:

[IrateCitizen]

6. I don't remember any of those names, because I was 6 in 1979

;-)

[Armstead]

8. I was 27 and sorta remember them

That was in the days of the Commie Menace.

[plcdude]

9. research research research

US of A is really the last nation to experience the method of terror and we need to study how those like Britain, Europe, S.East Asia have handled this phenomenon. It is not a war, it is crime prevention.

[IrateCitizen]

10. But there's a much deeper psychological effect at work too

It most likely stems from the fact that the United States has never really experienced the phenomenon of war, at least not since the days of the Civil War. Modern, total war is a spectator sport to us. Europeans lived through it, and are fully aware of the hell that it truly is. We glorify it and treat it as a matter of our "national honor", a spectacle not unlike a video game or action movie.

[Miss Authoritiva]

11. Your comment sent me to the World Political Almanac's

section on "Major Acts of Terrorism" from 1968 onward. The number of hijackings, kidnappings, bombings, and assassinations that occurred is amazing.

One that I found particularly interesting happened on September 6, 1970: PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) terrorists seized three planes en route to New York (one from Zurich, one from Frankfurt, and one from Amsterdam). An attempt to hijack a fourth plane, an El Al flight, failed when the hijacker was shot dead by security guards. Eventually, the planes were blown up (in Jordan and Cairo) and the hostages were freed over several weeks as part of a deal for the release of Arab terrorists held in Europe.

Note to Condoleeza Rice: Imagine that--the coordinated hijacking of four jets on the same day.

[Armstead]

12. Kick

:kick:

[TacticalPeek]

13. Kick.

:kick: