Is Right-Wing Fear-Mongering Turning Us Into Cowards?
Or: America duToitified
I've been toying with the idea of writing something like this for a long time, but Glenn Greenwald nails it. The main point: conservative fear-mongering re: terrorism has made us look like--and possibly actually made us into--a country of panty-waists.
9/11 was a horrific thing, but it doesn't warrant the kind of obsession and panic that the right has manufactured. If 9/11 really scares Bush & co. this much, then they'd evaporate in a puff of cowardice if they had to spend one day in the Iraqi Red Zone.
I just can't understand how a group of people who are always going on about how macho they are can be such chickenshits.
Of course there is another explanation for the fearmongering...
Or: America duToitified
I've been toying with the idea of writing something like this for a long time, but Glenn Greenwald nails it. The main point: conservative fear-mongering re: terrorism has made us look like--and possibly actually made us into--a country of panty-waists.
9/11 was a horrific thing, but it doesn't warrant the kind of obsession and panic that the right has manufactured. If 9/11 really scares Bush & co. this much, then they'd evaporate in a puff of cowardice if they had to spend one day in the Iraqi Red Zone.
I just can't understand how a group of people who are always going on about how macho they are can be such chickenshits.
Of course there is another explanation for the fearmongering...
posted by Winston Smith at
9:29 AM
3 Comments:
From the Greenwald essay:
"There is no more important goal than exposing and undermining the cowardly and exaggerated fear which lies at the core of the Bush agenda. If, as has been the case, we are bullied into starting from the tacit premise that Islamic terrorism is a unique and unprecedented evil which threatens our very existence -- rather than one of many challenges which we must calmly face and overcome..."
I see this as an attempt to invalidate, rather than disagree with, the idea that militant Islam is a grave and unique threat.
I for one happen to believe that it is, and my conclusion is based more on Hilaire Belloc than Bush administration rhetoric.
Now if those who don't think it is an existential threat wish to take on the burden of proof that it's "just one of many challenges," I'm willing to hear their case. I haven't heard it.
Until I do, it's a question of prudence---of degree---not of right or wrong, of valid and invalid arguments. It's a judgement call.
Tom,
I haven't read the Belloc material, but will try to do so. Thanks for the tip.
I'm starting from a position of agreeing with Greenwald: seems to me that militant Islamic terrorism is, though certainly unique in some ways, overall just on a continuum with other problems we've faced. Just in terms of the severity of the threat, I'd certainly take our position now over our position in, say, 1777, early 1942, or the late '50's-early '60's.
It's not that I don't think that we face big problems, it's just that they don't seem panic-worthy given what this country has faced in the past.
Even given the iatrogenic nature of our biggest current problem, Iraq...
Here's a more accurate analysis:
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2005_07_03_digbysblog_archive.html#112094486398202142
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home