May 18, 2003
An opiate of the masses.
Steve Gilliard at the Daily Kos gives us "War is a force that gives us meaning." He refers to Chris Hedges' new book of the same name but then leaves it behind to talk about the "myths of heroic violence" behind war. In the most moving part of Steve's piece, he portrays Bin Laden and now Saddam Hussein as laughing at Bush's threats of "hunting them down" or bringing them to "American justice." Steve then says,
Steve is exactly right. As long as we allow our fear to paralyze us, as long as we sacrifice our hard-earned liberty for some illusory "safety," we will remain trapped by Al Qaeda and Bin Laden. "The terrorists have won" in truth, as long as we allow our so-called leaders to trade away our position in the world and our self respect for their own gain.
I have said before that fear is our only true enemy. The entire idea behind the concept of "terrorism" is to induce terror. If we become terrified, terrorists have achieved their goal. If we instead put aside our fear and begin to behave rationally, using our best expertise and knowledge to treat the causes of terror rather than attacking symbolic scapegoats such as Iraq (which had nothing to do with 9/11, no matter how many times people might assert that it did), we defeat the basis of terrorism. By inflicting terror on the people of the Middle East, we guarantee the propagation of terror. Only by eschewing violence except where absolutely unavoidable, and then using it only in concert with the rest of the world, can we possibly defeat Bin Laden and prevent the rise of others of his ilk.
It seems desperately ironic that while we of course have won the war in Iraq, we are bound to lose the peace unless we change our strategy utterly. Our "leaders" are failing us; they invaded Iraq on a false pretext while they have ignored the previous subject of their attentions, Afghanistan, where the Taliban is growing stronger and our puppet government can't even control the whole of the capital city. Meanwhile we lose our own civil rights bit by bit, and for what? Safety? We are no more or less safe now than we were before 9/11/2001. Even though we have "protective" (and intrusive and rights-violating) measures in place, we are being governed by fools who prefer their own fantasies to the realities that the military and intelligence agencies offer them.
The best way and in truth the only way to defeat tyranny, including the kind of tyranny that Bin Laden would impose, is to do as Steve suggests. Close Guantanamo. Show ourselves to be the champion of human and civil rights that we have always claimed, falsely, to be. Once we do that, maybe we can begin to regain the trust of those whom our leaders have alienated and maybe we can begin to gain the trust of those who provide the basis for terrorism, people who most of all want to live their lives in peace but are reacting to impossible situations. Until then, they will turn to those who, like Bin Laden, they see as being their only hope for change.
Posted by Frank at May 18, 2003 4:52 PM