Islamic extremism.
Headline in my morning paper: "Blair warns of 'evil ideology' of Islamic extremism."
The one complaint I've heard most often from the hawks about the doves is that the doves waste their time trying to "understand" the enemy. "What do we care why they did it? Let's focus our efforts on stopping them from doing it again," I'll hear. Personally, I think understanding the enemy is a vital part of preventing repeats, but that opinion often falls on deaf ears.
But here's where the hypocrisy comes in. The hawks don't want you to tell them anything about the motivations of, say, the 9/11 terrorists when those motivations end up being an indictment of our side. "The 9/11 terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in retaliation for American support of oppressive, dictatorial regimes in Muslim lands" or "the 9/11 terrorists attacked the Pentagon because they were desperate in the face of extreme poverty, perpetuated by American trade practices" are rejected immediately, regardless of whether they contain any truth.
But when the indictments are of the other side, hawks are perfectly comfortable playing the armchair psychologist. "The 9/11 terrorists hijacked those planes because they were insane" or "the 9/11 terrorists aimed for the White House because a branch of Islam told them to."
If were going to completely ignore motivations, let's be consistent about it. No more references to the terrorists "hating our freedoms." No more references to their wanting to frighten us. No more references to their wanting to divide us. Certainly no more references to their religious beliefs.
If Blair would stop referring to those who perpetrated the London bombings of July 7th as "Islamic extremists," he wouldn't have to keep explaining how most Islamic people don't support terrorism. Blair could keep it simple: "there is this group of people who is responsible for the attacks. We don't know precisely why they attacked us. We don't care. We're going to catch them. That is all."
But that isn't very satisfying, is it?
The one complaint I've heard most often from the hawks about the doves is that the doves waste their time trying to "understand" the enemy. "What do we care why they did it? Let's focus our efforts on stopping them from doing it again," I'll hear. Personally, I think understanding the enemy is a vital part of preventing repeats, but that opinion often falls on deaf ears.
But here's where the hypocrisy comes in. The hawks don't want you to tell them anything about the motivations of, say, the 9/11 terrorists when those motivations end up being an indictment of our side. "The 9/11 terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in retaliation for American support of oppressive, dictatorial regimes in Muslim lands" or "the 9/11 terrorists attacked the Pentagon because they were desperate in the face of extreme poverty, perpetuated by American trade practices" are rejected immediately, regardless of whether they contain any truth.
But when the indictments are of the other side, hawks are perfectly comfortable playing the armchair psychologist. "The 9/11 terrorists hijacked those planes because they were insane" or "the 9/11 terrorists aimed for the White House because a branch of Islam told them to."
If were going to completely ignore motivations, let's be consistent about it. No more references to the terrorists "hating our freedoms." No more references to their wanting to frighten us. No more references to their wanting to divide us. Certainly no more references to their religious beliefs.
If Blair would stop referring to those who perpetrated the London bombings of July 7th as "Islamic extremists," he wouldn't have to keep explaining how most Islamic people don't support terrorism. Blair could keep it simple: "there is this group of people who is responsible for the attacks. We don't know precisely why they attacked us. We don't care. We're going to catch them. That is all."
But that isn't very satisfying, is it?
1 Comments:
"London mayor says West fueled Islamic radicalism"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050720/ts_nm/security_britain_mayor_dc_1;_ylt=ApSN62Rb5zZr3fqhMK6F6fy9Q5gv;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl
-rb
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