Don't Let the Neocons Call It a 'War on Terror'

[kpete]

Don't Let the Neocons Call It a 'War on Terror'
By Joshua Holland, AlterNet. Posted July 21, 2006.

If we don't challenge the 'war' narrative, the hawks may just get the existential Clash of Civilizations they've spent decades working for.


There's never been a global war on terror. It's a sham, a ruse. The conflict that's broken out between Israel and Hezbollah shows us, again, how important it is to articulate that. It's a real war, and it has both neocons and Islamic extremists praying that it will escalate into the global Clash of Civilizations that they've long lusted after.

Bush and Congress gave Israel the green light to pummel Lebanon for a while because "Israel is fighting a brave battle in a dangerous front in the War on Terror." And what can we, as Americans, really say about that? After all, we accepted the idea (some of us grudgingly) that there was a global "War on Terror" ourselves -- why shouldn't Lebanon be the next front?

When the media and our political class accepted the war frame, the hawks got a blank check. Everything that followed -- invasions, illegal surveillance and prisoners held in limbo, are all expected during times of war. Once we went to "war," resisting those policies became an uphill fight. War talk justifies powerful states responding to terrorist or insurgent attacks with disproportionate force. That makes the hawks feel macho and will likely create a whole new generation of potentially violent radicals who hate our guts.

more at:
http://www.alternet.org/story/39235/

[Solly Mack]

1. I agree with the point he is making

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1693630&mesg_id=1693965

Solly Mack (1000+ posts) Fri Jul-21-06 04:47 PM
Response to Original message
4. If Bush and Blair back an UN initiative in Lebanon then that beggars
the question - why then could not the same thing happen in Iraq....or Afghanistan, for that matter

Understand - I'm not interested in comparing the situations(Iraq/Lebanon,who started what, who did what)...I'm saying the end game...how it is allowed to resolve...plays directly into Bush's on war on terror. This tug of war is between Bush and the UN...his contempt for the UN...and his support of his own horrible policy (the war on terror)

take this sentence from the article...

"Britain and the United States argue that a cessation of hostilities would be premature unless the conditions are created for a durable peace, by disarming Hezbollah and extending Lebanese government control to the south of the country."

Now re-read that same sentence..

Britain and the United States argue that a cessation of hostilities between coalition forces and "insurgents" would be premature unless the conditions are created for a durable peace, by disarming the militias and Al-Queada operatives and extending Iraqi government control throughout the country.


If the UN steps in and manages to obtain some success, then Bush and Blair lose control of the war on terror. UN intervention opens the door to another way of handling terrorism.(that does include disarming known terrorist groups but doesn't involve unilateral invasions of sovereign countries)

An UN intervention would just further point to how wrong Bush has been...

Bush doesn't have any interests in doing anything that would expose his war on terror as a sham. Allowing the UN to lead the way would expose it.

Unless Bush and crew get to write the UN initiative to fit into their way of thinking, they won't back it...they can't back it.

I don't know how much success the UN can achieve, but I do know doing it Bush's way has been disastrous.

[lonestarnot]

4. Empowering the U.N. in this manner also gives me the creeps.

The bushitler has sure put us in a fine predicament. Damned if we do, damned if we don't.

[Solly Mack]

5. We truly are screwed thanks to Bush and his policies

[lonestarnot]

6. Between a shit and a sweat.

[C_U_L8R]

2. The Republican War of Errors

These republican clowns haven't done a single thing right...
except stuff their pockets with BILLIONS of OUR dollars.
And they can't even lie about it very well.

Yeah.. it's a Republican War of Errors alright.

[napi21]

3. I agree, but I'm afraid we've let it go on for sooo long, it's too late

to change it now! Every MSM, and every Rep. and Sen. have been using this phrase for 3 years already! A few Dems have tried to explain that you can't have a war or a fight on a noun! Logic will tell anyone that terrorism has existed for centuries and will continue to exist forever too! None of their words seem to resonate though.

[leesa]

7. Exactly. If we let them get away with this we will have endless war,

just like the bogus 'war on communism' bullshit. It's all designed to keep an economy built on selling war toys perking along. Sell the arms, create the war, blow everything up, make $$$ by patching it up, and then start all over. We just sold bazillions of dollars of war toys to Saudi Arabia. Think we won't be seeing those again? Help Israel get their war on....sell them bombs the next week. WooHoo! Making Dough!