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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Glenn, you are on target again. Regarding the failure of anti-terrorism efforts, the lesson learned will be that 'we did not go far enough'. 'Those liberal judges and lawyers and bleeding hearts forced us to fight this war with one hand tied behind our backs.' And so on.
Your other point regarding US interference and the backlash that always [yes, I mean always] results, is not restricted to Third World countries. Up here in Canada, it is usually safe to campaign against most things sanctioned by the US government. Especially if that US government is led by Republicans.
Thats not something most of us are proud of, it is just a fact of life. Not too many people I know like to be told by neighbours what they should be doing. Especially when your neighbour is clueless.
Neil, I spell with a old turnip in my ear. I still use a baby pacifier.
The farmers nose sprouts a red beet. O Green teeth Neil, apology.
You studied law, horticulture, and you forgot to water the spinach?
I hate canned, chopped Pop-Eye's, brand of greens. You remember?
Do those families, with legitimate grief, anger and reasons to be vengeful, turn to extremism?
That's the tendency. It's a tendency promoted and exploited by the radical right to advance right-wing extremism generally. Far from deploring incidents of violence, the radical right in fact finds them very useful. This is why the radical right is often found to have fomented such incidents themselves in 'false flag' operations.
Typically the radical right conscientiously avoids any thoughtful, just, and effective approach to ending the violence in favor of an approach which instead escalates the violence so that it can be exploited by ambitious demagogues and weapons manufacturers.
The techniques for accomplishing that exploitation have been well-understood since at least the 19th century, including examples of the misinformation and disinformation techniques so often seen posted here.
who here remembers the days of the 'underground press'? I worked on The Rag in Austin, TX in the late '60s, and we had a fair amount of interface with the papers in many other cities - especially via the Liberation News Service. The Rag maintained itself - plus its 'mission' - into the mid-70s (which is emblematic of the 'movement' from the '60s in general). Please let us (blogs) not disappear in similar fashion this time around.
Meantime, Accountability Now, Accountability Now, Accountability Now, etc.
Can this change? Of course it can; it merely takes a considerable amount of time and consistent effort.
Ah, Iokannan in the Well, that's true, but here's the rub.
We Americans are not a particularly patient people. We love to delegate as many of our responsibilities as we can afford to others; the gardener, the dog walker, the child-minder, the housekeeper/cleaning lady - note; that doesn't mean I deny comparative advantage or am opposed to elements of the service industry. We are always on the lookout for the next silver bullet afforded us from science and technology, which we're quite sure will relieve us of the mundane (eg, weight loss) and deliver us from the next evil (eg, climate change). That predisposition tends to make us suckers for the governmental hucksters we've 'enjoyed' as political leaders who sold us Morning in America, go shopping, supply-side economics, and the efficacy of a well placed bomb or two as opposed to troops on the ground (eg; lean, mean, and outsourced military). The handmaidens of the hucksters only help sell the product to a populace predisposed to purchase it.
As a group we exhibit an array of positive attributes, to be sure. Still, if a considerable amount of time and consistent effort is the essential ingredient for a collective solution, based on what I've observed, I'm not sure any of the generations in existence are any better endowed than the one which immediately preceded it. Any solution we imagine will have to play to our collective strength rather than our weakness if it is to be successful.
As a rule of thumb, in many years of working with people, the most useful tool I have is the recognition, for any individual, regardless of circumstance, their life clock ticks now.
Manmohan Singh, Indian Prime Minister, said, "Existing laws will be tightened to ensure that there are no loopholes available to terrorists to escape the clutches of the law. Most importantly, it is essential to immediately set up a federal investigative agency to go into terrorist crimes of this kind and ensure that the guilty are brought to book. We will take up strongly with our neighbors that the use of their territory for launching attacks on us will not be tolerated."
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/28/content_10425343.htm
Another example of US foreign policy: It worked, no matter how bad it was, so it is the US spreading democracy. Oh, it did not work; then it was someone else's anti-democracy actions. But that well has been pumped dry; wait a while for the water table to rise again.
Well, not as OT as it should be.
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Konsumterrorism
A German word with no real English equivalent is Konsumterror. A English definition might be: a fear that one is being a bad consumer, that one is missing out by not buying something.
This then could be called a casualty of Konsumterrorism:
A worker died after being trampled and a woman miscarried when hundreds of shoppers smashed through the doors of a Long Island Wal-Mart Friday morning, witnesses said.
The unidentified worker, employed as an overnight stock clerk, tried to hold back the unruly crowds just after the Valley Stream store opened at 5 a.m.
...
"He was bum-rushed by 200 people," said Jimmy Overby, 43, a co-worker. "They took the doors off the hinges. He was trampled and killed in front of me. They took me down too...I literally had to fight people off my back."
Link via Atrios
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I've read through these comments and I'm not sure I understand something: Are people saying that military action and extreme but temporary domestic security measures are NEVER appropriate in response to terrorism? If so, count me out. After 9/11, our Afghan incursion was, in my view, entirely appropriate and justifiable. Many of the intitial domestic security steps were also warranted. The mistakes came afterwards. With Iraq. With interminable illegal spying. The torture. The renditions. Etc, etc., etc.
Clearly, a nation has the right to self-defense. Indeed, that is an obligation. What India should do militarily in response to the Mombai attacks, if anything, is simply not clear at this point. Certainly, a knee-jerk lashing out will just inflame the situation and be counterproductive. That is likely what the terrorists want to see. But there is a time and a place for military action and militaristic measures. It's just that, ultimately, the Islamic extremists will be defeated not primarily by force, but by dissuading those attracted to terrorism, by collective and cooperative opposition. Just what Bush did NOT do.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
