Why we can't win the "war on terror"

[zengrifter]

Why we can't win the "war on terror"

A provocative new book from an expert on terrorism argues
that Bush's tough-guy stance is making things much worse --
and that we should negotiate with al-Qaida.



By Gary Kamiya

Sep. 15, 2006 | As the midterm elections approach, the Bush administration has launched its latest propaganda campaign, claiming that it is our Churchillian duty to fight the menace of "Islamofascism" -- a meaninglessly broad term that conflates secular insurgents in Iraq, al-Qaida-inspired Sunni extremists, Syrian Alawites and Baathists, Palestinian nationalists, Shiite leaders in Iran and Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon. Those who don't sign on to this supposedly WWII-like struggle, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld charged, are "appeasers."

It is hardly surprising that George W. Bush has revived this kind of heroic, clash-of-civilizations rhetoric, which has always worked for him. In fact, this is an insultingly simplistic formulation that, by failing to distinguish between different types of groups, not only would keep us bogged down forever in Iraq but threatens to enmesh us in new quagmires.

In a recent speech, ambassador James Dobbins, who headed U.S. negotiations after the Afghanistan war, made this point emphatically. "In a search for moral clarity, the administration has tried to divide the Middle East into good guys and bad guys," Dobbins said. "America tends to treat Middle East diplomacy as a win/lose or zero-sum game in which Syrian, Iranian, Hezbollah or Hamas gains are by definition American losses and vice versa. The result, of course, is the United States always loses, because if you insist that the population of the region choose between Syria, Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas, on the one hand, or the United States and Israel, on the other, they are going to choose the other side every time."

...continued here - http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/f.../salon029.html

[zengrifter]

Spreading comfort to the enemy. as usual. zg

[shadroch]

The US is pretty good when it comes to wars WITH nations. It's the wars ON things we mishandle. How many years into the war on poverty are we? Are we still fighting the war on drugs?Don't even get me started on the war on Christmas.There once was a war on Aids,wasn't there?

[Guynoire]

The war on terror is just another example of semantic nonsense used for political purposes, in this case to increase military spending. Politicians do this all the time like Bill Clinton's "bridge to the 21st century." Yeah that makes sense, let's construct a bridge to a time period, hopefully we'll be able to drive on it without tolls. Makes about as much sense as fighting a war against an emotion or an idea. Every soldier signs up to go and kills those nasty ideas.

Seriously, the US can't win the war on terror because the war on terror doesn't exist. If you want to talk about Bush's foreign policy accomplishments, it's been pretty pitiful during his 2 terms, but talking about a fictitious war like it actually existed is pretty moronic. Just because something has a name doesn't mean it exists.

[zengrifter]

Originally Posted by Guynoire

The war on terror is just another example of semantic nonsense used for political purposes, in this case to increase military spending. .....Seriously, the US can't win the war on terror because the war on terror doesn't exist. If you want to talk about Bush's foreign policy accomplishments, it's been pretty pitiful during his 2 terms, but talking about a fictitious war like it actually existed is pretty moronic. Just because something has a name doesn't mean it exists.

HE GETS IT! zg

[Sonny]

Originally Posted by Guynoire

Seriously, the US can't win the war on terror because the war on terror doesn't exist…Just because something has a name doesn't mean it exists.

But it does exist because the government invented it. It’s like a rumor. It may not be true, but it’s real. They’ve got everybody thinking that terrorists are living among us sneaking around trying to blow up our airports and buildings. They’ve got us afraid of our own shadows and our own neighbors. The war on terror might just be a rumor but the government has made it real enough to influence our lives and our constitutional rights (the few that we haven’t given up yet).

The only way to fight a war on terror is to stop being terrified.

-Sonny-

[shadroch]

But calling it "the war against a bunch of cave dwellers armed with box-cutters" just doesn't have the cache needed to get that next trillion dollars out of Congress.

[zengrifter]

Originally Posted by Sonny

But it does exist because the government invented it. It’s like a rumor. It may not be true, but it’s real.

Like those phoney vids of jetliners crashing into the towers. zg