Bad Behavior

Email Print posted by funkyspoon 07/09/2008 02:20:32 PM EST

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While we try to fight the "Global War on Terrorism" or "Long War" or whatever apocalyptic bullshit the neocons are calling it these days, we are actually making our enemies stronger.  The numbers clearly show that terrorist incidents have risen dramatically during george bush's tenure, and that our principle enemies are actually much stronger financially and more experienced because of Iraq.  Iraq is creating the next wave of terrorists we will have to fight (and they will be here, not over there).  And Iraq is only one of the many countries where we are behaving in a way that will cause problems for us down the line.

  This country has been more than willing to support some truly disgusting people and their causes because they were perceived to be our allies.  Our backing of murderous undemocratic foreign governments and terrorist groups whose goals align with ours is one of the main catalysts for encouraging terrorist behavior aimed at us and our interests. When we support groups and governments who have no trouble starving, torturing and killing civilians, those civilians have a legitimate beef with us.  When we continue to make sure that these same people cannot legally change their government, history shows that they will rise up in arms.

  For most of the 20th century we were able to avoid the fate of the european powers that did the same thing (partly through our use of client states,and partly because of favorable geography). This will not continue.  OBL is just one of the first terrorist leaders to realize what a what an easy target we are in a globalized world.  There will be much more to come,  because we seem to be unable to change our imperious behavior.  

  Europe got tired of being victims of terrorism and changed their global behavior accordingly. We will probably not do the same because conservatives have managed to drown out any legitmate debate over the issue, just like with the War on Drugs (which actually funds many of our terrorist enemies).  Using zero tolerance, with us or against us policies engen ders the very behavior that we are trying to eradicate. This country simply doesn't seem to have the brain power required to think beyond one or two steps of cause and effect.

  We have got to break the cycle of trying to run the world like our playground, and then being surprised when we have to deal with the blowback.  I don't know how we get there, but I think one of the first steps is realizing that the enemy of our enemy of our enemy is not always our friend.
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Bad Behavior | 3 comments (3 topical, 0 hidden)
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"Europe got tired of being victims of terrorism and changed their global behavior accordingly."

Would like to add that most of that "terrorism" after WW2 was homegrown and not of an islamic nature. Some was/is about regional rights (Basque ETA, ...), religious (IRA, ...), civil rights/ruling class (leftist cells in Italy, Germany, Belgium, ...) 
70-80s leftist cells are interesting since initially their attacks against the allmighty conservative (christian) parties were supported by a large part of the population, because the people felt that their power was out of control

Other part of the story is that most European nations are tired of war after WWII. WWII is the end of a series of wars that had been going on between France and what's now Germany for over a thousand years, not forgetting that every other nations in Europe had been involved in wars for over 2000 years. The last time Europe has known such a long period of peace was during the Pax Romana. So even as Americans tend to view Europeans as pussies, their history tells the story why they want peace now, they know what it is to have war at home.

And the last part is that Europeans now tend to accept blowback much easier, yes, even understand why.
Look at Spain for instance they accepted the consequences of going into Iraq and they moved on, instead of using it as an excuse for a variety of unethical and illegal actions.

action-reaction people, that's what it's all about

by callisto on 07/09/2008 05:36:31 PM EST

right on (none / 0)

Many people act like the world changed on 9-11.  It didn't (at least if you were not a historically myopic American).  We are not the first nation to endure terrorism, and we won't be the last.  And europe was was not any better at dealing with terrorism at first then we are now.  The difference is that most european nations learned from their mistakes.  Not even to say that everything is peachy.  Spain, for exapmple, needs to realize that Franco is not in charge anymore, and start treating the basques with a least a little bit of respect.  But I have much more faith in them being able to solve their terror problems, mainly because the political system is just more transparent in a parliamentary system.  Also, the people of europe simply seem to be more politically aware and willing to do the work that it takes to clean up the mess.  It's really frustrating that the general reply that I get when I try to talk about anything political in this country is either "They are all crooks, its pointless to try to fight it" or "None of it really matters to me, I just try to live my life".

   Just as a side note, although the levels of violence inside roman borders was low during the "Pax Romanus", things probably wouldn't have looked very peaceful if you were a non-roman living near their borders.  Chalmers Johnson has very good chapter in his latest book comparing the Roman Empire, British Empire, and the current American Empire.  I don't have too much time to write about it, but in essence it talks about the way that each empire justified preemptive war against their neighbors as" keeping the peace" and how the first two were both brought down by an unchecked military industrial complex, and an inability to deal with extreme wealth disparity.  Recommend checking it out if you see it at the library or bookstore.

by funkyspoon on 07/09/2008 10:49:12 PM EST

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Bad behavior (none / 0)
I think this needs some serious sunshine.  Follow the link to what I hope is our last best chance to ultimately see George Bush in an orange jumpsuit.

http://www.salon.com/opinio n/feature/2008/07/09/alhara main_lawsuit/index.html

by mackayc on 07/09/2008 07:57:33 PM EST

Bad Behavior | 3 comments (3 topical, 0 hidden)
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