Larry, Moe, And Condi
There's a scathing report by a Pentagon advisory panel, delivered in September, "but silently slipped onto a Pentagon Web site on Thanksgiving eve, and barely noticed by the U.S. press." That report, writes Sidney Blumenthal, calls Bush's "war on terror" an unmitigated disaster:
The Bush administration, according to the Defense Science Board, has misconceived a war on terrorism in the image of the Cold War -- "reflexively" and "without a thought or a care as to whether these were the best responses to a very different strategic situation." Yet the administration seeks out "Cold War models" to cast this "war" against "totalitarian evil." However, the struggle is not the West vs. Islam; nor is it "against the tactic of terrorism." "This is no Cold War," the report insists. While we blindly and confidently call this a "war on terrorism," Muslims "in contrast see a history-shaking movement of Islamic restoration" against "apostate" Arab regimes allied with the U.S. and "Western Modernity -- an agenda hidden within the official rubric of a 'War on Terrorism.'"In this conflict, "wholly unlike the Cold War," the Bush administration's impulse has been to "imitate the routines and bureaucratic responses and mindset that so characterized that era." So the U.S. projects Iraqis and other Arabs as people to be liberated like those "oppressed by Soviet rule." And the U.S. accepts authoritarian Arab regimes as allies against the "radical fighters." All of this is nothing less than a gigantic "strategic mistake."
"There is no yearning-to-be-liberated-by-the-U.S. groundswell among Muslim societies -- except to be liberated perhaps from what they see as apostate tyrannies that the U.S. so determinedly promotes and defends. (Original emphasis.)" Rhetoric about freedom is received as "no more than self-serving hypocrisy," daily highlighted by the U.S. occupation in Iraq. "Muslims do not 'hate our freedom,' but rather, they hate our policies." The "dramatic narrative since 9/11" of the "war on terrorism," Bush's grand justification, his story line connecting all the dots from the World Trade Center to Baghdad, has "borne out the entire radical Islamist bill of particulars." As a result, jihadists have been able to transform themselves from marginal figures in the Muslim world into defenders against invasion and attack with a growing following of millions.
Thanks, Colin, for playing good soldier and going along, and thanks Condi, our Cold War go-to girl, who moonlights cleaning up PR messes.
"Muslims do not 'hate our freedom,' but rather, they hate our policies."
Yes, America must abandon Israel to remain safe. "No Jews, Know Peace" should be our rallying cry. I wasn't in favor of this solution but I feel more comfortable with it knowing it has your support.
nash at December 2, 2004 2:27 PM
Um, no. "No jews, know peace" would not be my rallying cry. And if America's going to abandon Israel for anyone's safety, it should be the Palestinians. I'm reminded of something Amy Goodman once said: "As the granddaughter of an orthodox Jewish rabbi, the only thing that upsets me more that the sight of Israeli children with gasmasks on is the sight of Palestinian children without them."
Lena at December 2, 2004 3:50 PM
Sidney Blumenthal? On Salon? Disparaging Bush?
You don't say.
Cridland at December 3, 2004 4:28 AM
Thanks for making me laugh, Crid. For reasons too convoluted to get into, I've been thinking a lot this evening about a wonderful friend who died of AIDS in 1990. It's amazing how old grief can well up so suddenly. The interior lives of armchair leftists are not always so easy!
Lena at December 3, 2004 4:38 AM