They're Watching
I promise I will very rarely comment on anything political on this blog, because - well - you know the old saying about not discussing religion and politics. Whenever I've done it, it has gotten me into trouble. Or at least made me feel dirty. So I don't like to do it much. But I had a thought today about the state of the world that seemed relatively revealing to me. See if this makes sense.
I think we can probably all agree that the defining issue of our times is terrorism. Yet we have a couple of very different views on what to do about it.
From George W and Cheney we get the "take the fight to the enemy" approach. And of course, they're in charge so that's what we've been doing. From others whom we can safely say are "to the left" of W and Cheney, we hear that this approach is madness and counterproductive.
Today I came to a realization that both sides are essentially saying the same thing: "They're watching."
If you listen to Cheney especially, he's always saying that we have to keep our resolve, we can't give in, we have to show them that we will stand up and fight. In this view, the reason that terrorists have attacked us is that they perceive that we are a weak nation that won't defend itself. Cheney's argument is that they got away with attacking our embassies, the USS Cole, etc., and we didn't do much in response. So they have felt that they can attack us again. Or at least they used to. Then we "took the fight to the enemy" and they haven't attacked us since. This is the argument for staying in Iraq, come what may. If we leave, then it will embolden them to attack us again.
In short, "they're watching." And who's "they"? Why, the terrorists of course. This view is justified if you believe that the primary external audience that we are trying to send a message to is terrorists.
"The left" is horrified by this. By invading Iraq, they argue, we have made things worse. There are now more people who have taken up arms against us than there were before. There are people in Europe who were not violent before but now are violent, and it's because we have taken this aggressive stance. We are now getting attacked again and again in Iraq because we invaded their country and have not ensured its security, even three years later. In short, we are making things worse, not better.
And why? Because "they're watching." In this view, "they" is not the terrorists. In this view, the audience that we must influence by our actions is not the terrorists. It is the vast Muslim population. We don't want to make these people any more mad at us than they already are. We don't want to turn the moderates into extremists and the extremists into violent terrorists.
So...they're watching. It just depends on who you think is watching.
I think we can probably all agree that the defining issue of our times is terrorism. Yet we have a couple of very different views on what to do about it.
From George W and Cheney we get the "take the fight to the enemy" approach. And of course, they're in charge so that's what we've been doing. From others whom we can safely say are "to the left" of W and Cheney, we hear that this approach is madness and counterproductive.
Today I came to a realization that both sides are essentially saying the same thing: "They're watching."
If you listen to Cheney especially, he's always saying that we have to keep our resolve, we can't give in, we have to show them that we will stand up and fight. In this view, the reason that terrorists have attacked us is that they perceive that we are a weak nation that won't defend itself. Cheney's argument is that they got away with attacking our embassies, the USS Cole, etc., and we didn't do much in response. So they have felt that they can attack us again. Or at least they used to. Then we "took the fight to the enemy" and they haven't attacked us since. This is the argument for staying in Iraq, come what may. If we leave, then it will embolden them to attack us again.
In short, "they're watching." And who's "they"? Why, the terrorists of course. This view is justified if you believe that the primary external audience that we are trying to send a message to is terrorists.
"The left" is horrified by this. By invading Iraq, they argue, we have made things worse. There are now more people who have taken up arms against us than there were before. There are people in Europe who were not violent before but now are violent, and it's because we have taken this aggressive stance. We are now getting attacked again and again in Iraq because we invaded their country and have not ensured its security, even three years later. In short, we are making things worse, not better.
And why? Because "they're watching." In this view, "they" is not the terrorists. In this view, the audience that we must influence by our actions is not the terrorists. It is the vast Muslim population. We don't want to make these people any more mad at us than they already are. We don't want to turn the moderates into extremists and the extremists into violent terrorists.
So...they're watching. It just depends on who you think is watching.
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