Bush's Alarmism Gives Islamic Rebels What They Most Want

IHT - International Herald Tribune ^ | FR Post 02-02-02 | William Pfaff

[vannrox]

Bush's Alarmism Gives Islamic Rebels What They Most Want

William Pfaff

International Herald Tribune

PARIS The United States has its work cut out for it, if President George W. Bush's State of the Union assurances concerning the war on terrorism are to be believed.


. Iran, Iraq and North Korea, the "axis of evil," are either to have their governments replaced or be deprived of their ability to construct weapons of mass destruction. (White House officials add that there are no immediate plans for military action.)


. The surviving Al Qaeda camps "in at least a dozen countries" are to be destroyed, and "tens of thousands" of potential terrorists neutralized. By implication, other Islamic fundamentalist groups that have been in contact with Al Qaeda, including elements of the secessionist movement active in the southern Philippines since the 19th century, are to be suppressed.


. The war on terrorism has only started, according to Mr. Bush. The peril it confronts "draws closer and closer." "The world's most dangerous regimes" will not be allowed "to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons," he says.


. He repeats that permanent mobilization of the American nation is required, as well as greatly increased military spending. The alarmist language of Mr. Bush's address and its identification of the enemy in metaphysical, rather than political, terms (the enemy is "evil," not a band of terrorists, or several foreign governments) were consistent with all that the White House already has said about the terrorist threat.


. Once again, though, the president has persisted in giving the Islamists what they presumably most want: admission of American vulnerability and recognition of themselves as America's greatest challenge.


. He did so despite the fact that Al Qaeda is much less well financed and less powerful than, say, organized crime or international drug cartels. .


Paul Schroeder, a University of Illinois historian, writing about Sept. 11 in the current issue of a conservative Washington quarterly, The National Interest, says, "by endlessly rehearsing the magnitude of the loss, labeling it a national tragedy, disaster and even catastrophe, by hyperventilating in denouncing the action and demanding vengeance, and by panicking at the fear of still more attacks," Americans "have encouraged the terrorists to believe that the United States really can be badly hurt by actions like these." .


And such a belief, of course, is not in the least true. The Sept. 11 attacks took many lives but did no serious objective damage to the United States, as a nation. .


Al Qaeda, moreover, is surely shaken and dispersed by the raids and bombing attacks on its leadership in Afghanistan, the Taliban defeat and by the mobilization of police and intelligence services nearly everywhere to penetrate and neutralize its networks. ..


The American public nonetheless seems to accept the White House assessment of terrorist power and the rogue nation threat. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released just before the State of the Union address indicated that 64 percent of the public thinks that most of the military action in the war against terrorism is yet to come. ..


Thus, Mr. Bush's call for sustained mobilization and his administration's demand for new military spending finds a receptive audience. Yet there was never much anxiety in the United States about future events, or fear of enemy attack, during the Cold War, or during the Korean or Vietnam wars, and certainly not during World War II. ..


There is something fake, or faintly Orwellian, in Washington's insistence that the threat is immense, that mobilization must be permanent, that the military budget be vastly increased, that civil liberties be restricted and that critics be chided as unpatriotic. ..


There is something wrong here. The threat and the reaction don't match. The greed and corruption that went into the Enron affair is a bigger threat to the United States than Osama bin Laden will ever be, and I would think most Americans, in their hearts, know it. ..


Los Angeles Times Syndicate. .

[vannrox]

"...And such a belief, of course, is not in the least true. The Sept. 11 attacks took many lives but did no serious objective damage to the United States, as a nation..."

[zarf]

OK, that's it ladies and germs, everythings OK now. Let's move along. Go back to the porno theaters and have a good time, nothing to see here.

[nsmart]

There is something fake, or faintly Orwellian, in Washington's insistence that the threat is immense, that mobilization must be permanent, that the military budget be vastly increased, that civil liberties be restricted and that critics be chided as unpatriotic. ..

This is my feeling as well. When the nation will not allow us to protect ourselves with personal weapons, when the airport screeners take knitting needles from grandmothers and worry about offending middle eastern men buying one way tickets, I worry. I worry that hundreds of intelligence services paid for by yours and my tax dollars are feuding with each other rather than working in unison -- I say, save $40-50 billion a year, can the CIA and we may just start being loved around the world again.

[Chi-townChief]

You really have to wonder just how far Pfaff and Schroeder have their heads up their butts to come up with this kind of nonsense.

[JCG]

There is something fake, or faintly Orwellian, in Washington's insistence that the threat is immense, that mobilization must be permanent, that the military budget be vastly increased, that civil liberties be restricted and that critics be chided as unpatriotic. ..

This sounds like a pantload of Pfaff to me.  Of course the threat is immense.  When we went to war after Pearl Harbor the enemy numbered 160-million.  Now it could be anywhere from 120 million to 1.2-billion, depending on which way the winds of war blow.

But, of course, if we continue the delusion that we're just dealing with so many Methodists and Presbyterians  then we can be like Pfaff and not worry about it.

America's Fifth Column ... watch PBS documentary JIHAD! In America
Download 8 Mb zip file here (60 minute video)

[alloysteel]

Now nobody can say, with any shred of objectivity, that there is any redeeming social benefit to Iran, Iraq and North Korea, for the existing regimes to remain in power. Given, that if any kind of meaningful election is possible, that fact alone would not necessarily mean that these regimes could be turned out of office. Maybe a majority of the populations in these countries WANT the kind of government they have. But would we want to do business with them? The fact is, we still do some back door trading with Iran and Iraq, their oil for our goods and services intended to provide humanitarian aid to their civilian population. Only in the case of Iraq, most of this aid is diverted to the military uses. North Korea is, well, a stalking horse for China, in which the North Koreans express the rhetoric and probing actions, that China does not want to be seen doing themselves. Iran has the external trappings of a representative electoral republic, but it is clear that nothing is allowed in that country except at the permission or direction of the theocracy. And none of the three countries has expressed much love or respect for the US, for some time now.

[livius]

Oh, please! vannrox, I know you're posting this simply to show us what the readers of the Int HTB are sucking up, but, honestly, it's making me sick!

[nothingnew]

William Pfaff

Arsehole puffwad.

...puff?....hey, where's francisandbeans?!

FMCDH

[aculeus]

Another Eurowienie checks in.

The problem Herr Pfaff is not 911 it's preventing a much larger massacre.

Peddle your views in Europe. We have no interest.

[Green Knight]

There is something wrong here. The threat and the reaction don't match. The greed and corruption that went into the Enron affair is a bigger threat to the United States than Osama bin Laden will ever be, and I would think most Americans, in their hearts, know it. ...

The threat and the reaction don't match? We face a threat that snuffed out 3,000+ lives at once, and which seeks to extract a greater toll of life from us in the future, including targeting nuclear power plants! That doesn't deserve a serious reaction? Enron's a bigger threat than terrorism?!? What a crock. I'd say terrorists getting their hands on nukes and detonating them inside an American city is a greater threat than people getting screwed over, financially. I'd say rogue nations like Iraq and North Korea developing weapons of mass destruction, and with a willingness to use them, is a greater threat than rogue accountants. This buffoon needs to get his priorities straight.

And most Americans, in their hearts, know it.

At least that's what he tells himself, so he won't feel as if he's the only one with the same ridiculous opinion.

And how is treating terrorists as if they're our greatest challenge a bad thing and giving them what they want? As it's been shown in Afghanistan, the LAST thing terrorists want is for us to turn our full attention towards them.

[sinkspur]

I say, save $40-50 billion a year, can the CIA and we may just start being loved around the world again.

How about humming "Kumbaya" for us, dipwad.

Sheesh! I'm glad you're not responsible for anything important. Maybe you won't vote next time either.

The CIA, in case you haven't heard, is back to being the kind of cowboys they were originally intended to be.

And everybody except you likes it.

[Howlin]

The Sept. 11 attacks took many lives but did no serious objective damage to the United States, as a nation..."

Remember that when they need help; we'll just tell them that it just didn't do enough damage.

[69ConvertibleFirebird]

...when the airport screeners take knitting needles from grandmothers...

It makes perfect sense. What do you think would happen if Ganndma knitted an Afgan while up there in the air in a HUGE potential airplane-weapon, with hundreds of other passengers lives at stake?!?! What if she knitted multiple Afgans?!!! The HORROR!!!

So what if most airport screeners don't have high school degrees. They know what makes Afgans...

[Richard Kimball]

The greed and corruption that went into the Enron affair is a bigger threat to the United States than Osama bin Laden will ever be, and I would think most Americans, in their hearts, know it. ..

Los Angeles Times Syndicate. .

Well, this sums it up. Let's forget about real threats to our security and get back to Nixonizing a Republican President. All you have to do is look for the diversion and the source.

[liberalism=failure]

There is something fake, or faintly Orwellian, in Washington's insistence that the threat is immense...

But the threat IS immense If they were to have them, Islamic terrorists or an Islamic fanatic state could easily hit us with nukes and wipe out entire cities.

...that mobilization must be permanent...

mobilization does need to be permanent As long as there are such people and states that would do this we will have to be ready to stop them. Especially when the time comes that many of them have the wherewithall to create atomic bombs (it won't be long).

...that the military budget be vastly increased...

The military budget must be vastly increased because bombs, intelligance, technology et all, cost lots of money, so it must of course be paid for. We have a projected budget surplus--Better to spend it in defense of our country then let the worthless demoRATS waste it buying more votes from their greedy constituents.

that civil liberties be restricted

But civil liberties aren't being restricted all I see is it takes a little longer to get through the airport. Big whoop.

...and that critics be chided as unpatriotic...(ah the true gripe of the author revealed)

Damn eff-ing right, critics should be chided as unpatriotic--if you aren't gonna root for the home team then get out of the stadium. America was attacked, America has every moral right to defend itself. If you are an American and you disgree perhaps its time to choose another country.

Conclusion--Nothing Orwellian here. But I'll tell ya what, go look at political correctness in this country, there's Orwellian bad guys on that one times ten. So go after them and leave the good guys who protect this country and make it work alone.

[Shermy]

Disgusting. Shallow and self-serving. 911 was an extremely inconvenient fact for these types. Gets in the way of their thinking processes, which they don't want to change.

[zarf]

Uzi's for all airline passengers? I'll take a rowboat thank you.

[sam_paine]

William Pfaff
International Herald Tribune
PARIS - ...........

Consider the source. And stay over there, Pfaff!!!!

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

72 virgins? Won't they be peeved when they find out that Osama lied and what's waiting is more like.....