[lit-ideas] Re: Nuclear Responsibility and Iran
- From: "John McCreery" <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2007 09:29:44 +0900
On 3/10/07, Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Maybe I think al-Qaeda is the worst foe the US has ever encountered in
its history and you don't? How do we evaluate this, Robert?
Robert will answer for himself. But, thank you Eric for putting the
question so clearly. Speaking for myself, I will answer with equal clarity.
al-Qaeda is not the worst foe the U.S. has ever encountered.
Compared to Hitler, Stalin, Mao, or the Japanese Empire, al-Qaeda is a
piss-ant operation. Yes, it's leaders have apocalyptic visions. Yes, they
hate our guts. Yes, in a world where they may get their hands on nuclear or
biological weapons, they may be able to hurt us very badly. Do they have
armies capable of conquering most of Europe or most of China and Southeast
Asia? Do they have weapons in sufficient numbers to take us out before we
reduce their homelands to cinders (we are, after all, the ones with the
6,000 nuclear weapons and high-tech delivery systems)? Who is the hyperpower
here?
That you can imagine that al-Qaeda is the worst enemy we have ever faced is
understandable given that you were near ground-zero on 9/11. For the first
and only time in your life you have faced the horror of war close-up. You
have clearly never recovered from that experience.
Does it give your opinions special authority? No, it does not. On the
contrary, it suggests that your very real emotions may be distorting your
judgment. In fact, when you madly race about hunting for instances when the
U.S. or Sweden or, whoever, has done this or that bad thing, you sound like
a three-year old saying, "Jimmy did it, too." To which my Mom always
replied, "You're not Jimmy. We expect better of you."
But, returning to the sort of, "Look, they do it, too" facts to which you
point. Who more than a thoroughly brainwashed leftist is more likely to know
that the Spanish-American War was trumped up, Lincoln suspended habeas
corpus, Swedish people in power are like people in power everywhere? No big
surprises, there. We know that every step toward democracy, equal
opportunity and equal protection under the law has been fought tooth and
nail by the right, and that if we look back we see that people who fought
for causes we believe in also did nasty things of which we are not proud.
That is why we regard these hard-won advances as so precious. We know how
easy it is for demagogues to become tyrants by playing on our basest
instincts. And we know that that appeal is never stronger than when people
are frightened. So when we see an administration react to an event that
should, if al-Qaeda were in fact the worst enemy we've ever faced, have
resulted in national mobilization and a call for national sacrifice and a
reaching out for allies around the world, resort to bread and circuses (just
keep shopping boys and girls!) while rapidly constructing a police-state
apparatus and giving priority to the profits of its supporters over sensible
steps to protect ports, chemical plants and other critical facilities,
properly fund clean-up of leftover nuclear weapons in the former USSR,
properly equip a military for urban guerrilla warfare...the list goes on and
on...we know we have met the enemy again, an enemy far more dangerous to
keeping alive America's dream than a gang of religious fanatics mostly on
the other side of the world.
Sure, they can hurt us. Conquer us? Never. Ask Hitler and Hirohito what
happens to folks who try that. Unless, of course, Pogo is right: "We have
met the enemy...and he is us."
John
--
John McCreery
The Word Works, Ltd., Yokohama, JAPAN
Tel. +81-45-314-9324
http://www.wordworks.jp/
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