Friday, August 11, 2006
Now Playing: Terrorist Strike IX! Be Afraid! Be Very Afraid!
And now for this week's chilling installment of the on-going action-thriller of world events: LONDON-BASED TERROR PLOT FOILED! What really gets me about this is the smaller headline underneath: ARRESTS BOLSTER G.O.P. AS ELECTION NEARS.
How can The Times report with a straight face Bush's pronouncement yesterday that the world is safer than it was after 9/11? Do the Republicans really think people will take seriously their self-righteous spewing into any available microphone, "We told you so! We can't pull out of Iraq when there are terrorists afoot!"
Let's be real here! It's been well-proven that Iraq and Al Qaeda had nothing in common in 2001, and if they have more in common now it's thanks to the disastrous US occupation of that country, promulgated by the Republicans. Once again Cheney is going around trying to make connections between waging war in Iraq and Al Qaeda-driven terrorism that simply don't hold water.
Meanwhile, notice how quiet Republicans are being about what's really driving these terrorists: Israel and the devastation of Lebanon. Granted, Lebanon has become a haven for Hezbollah (in a way that Iraq was never a haven for Al Qaeda). But does that justify the destruction of homes and infrastructure, the wanton bombing of civilians?
There's been a little hemming and hawing this week from the US about shipping Israel a big load of cluster bombs--a little hand-wringing over the fact that cluster bombs will inevitably end up killing civilians. But you know that shipment will go out, and those bombs will be dropped on Lebanese families, killing children or maiming them for life. You don't hear much talk from Cheney or Rumsfeld about that, do you?
It's become increasingly obvious to me that Israel is fighting a proxy war for the US. Our hands are tied in Baghdad and things are going from bad to worse. It's necessary to shift world attention somewhere else, to take the heat off American (non)leadership, and distract Americans from the fact that their young people are dying every day in Iraq. Israel is a convenient scapegoat for Arab fury, a lightening rod for all the angry militants in the region. Israeli soldiers are well-trained, well-equipped, and at least they have the satisfaction of feeling like they're truly fighting for their country, their own families and territory. Let them do the job.
But the London terrorist plot of Summer 2006 shows that the hardcore terrorists aren't fooled. They know the US is still to blame. Who is supplying Israel with weaponry and intelligence? Who has abdicated the effort to secure a reasonable two-state solution for the Palestinians? The latest terrorist attempt was actually a brilliant plan to punish both the US and its henchman, Britain, in one fell stroke. The only problem is that as with all terrorism, it's innocent civilians who become the pawns, and pay the price with their lives.
Not that I can really in good conscience say that any American or British citizen is "innocent." We're all going along with what's been happening here in our lifetimes. The injustice, the greed, the short-sighted policies, the thuggery of the weak--we view it as a fact of life, background noise that we learn to screen out. If we cared, we'd have impeached this president by now.
We have a chance, this November, to send a strong statement, not just to our politicians but to the whole world, that Americans have had enough of the kind of leadership that has given us one crisis after another ever since 2001. Things have not gotten better under Bush leadership, they've gotten much, much worse. Maybe we've finally hit bottom, and can begin, battered but determined, to make our way back up.
How can The Times report with a straight face Bush's pronouncement yesterday that the world is safer than it was after 9/11? Do the Republicans really think people will take seriously their self-righteous spewing into any available microphone, "We told you so! We can't pull out of Iraq when there are terrorists afoot!"
Let's be real here! It's been well-proven that Iraq and Al Qaeda had nothing in common in 2001, and if they have more in common now it's thanks to the disastrous US occupation of that country, promulgated by the Republicans. Once again Cheney is going around trying to make connections between waging war in Iraq and Al Qaeda-driven terrorism that simply don't hold water.
Meanwhile, notice how quiet Republicans are being about what's really driving these terrorists: Israel and the devastation of Lebanon. Granted, Lebanon has become a haven for Hezbollah (in a way that Iraq was never a haven for Al Qaeda). But does that justify the destruction of homes and infrastructure, the wanton bombing of civilians?
There's been a little hemming and hawing this week from the US about shipping Israel a big load of cluster bombs--a little hand-wringing over the fact that cluster bombs will inevitably end up killing civilians. But you know that shipment will go out, and those bombs will be dropped on Lebanese families, killing children or maiming them for life. You don't hear much talk from Cheney or Rumsfeld about that, do you?
It's become increasingly obvious to me that Israel is fighting a proxy war for the US. Our hands are tied in Baghdad and things are going from bad to worse. It's necessary to shift world attention somewhere else, to take the heat off American (non)leadership, and distract Americans from the fact that their young people are dying every day in Iraq. Israel is a convenient scapegoat for Arab fury, a lightening rod for all the angry militants in the region. Israeli soldiers are well-trained, well-equipped, and at least they have the satisfaction of feeling like they're truly fighting for their country, their own families and territory. Let them do the job.
But the London terrorist plot of Summer 2006 shows that the hardcore terrorists aren't fooled. They know the US is still to blame. Who is supplying Israel with weaponry and intelligence? Who has abdicated the effort to secure a reasonable two-state solution for the Palestinians? The latest terrorist attempt was actually a brilliant plan to punish both the US and its henchman, Britain, in one fell stroke. The only problem is that as with all terrorism, it's innocent civilians who become the pawns, and pay the price with their lives.
Not that I can really in good conscience say that any American or British citizen is "innocent." We're all going along with what's been happening here in our lifetimes. The injustice, the greed, the short-sighted policies, the thuggery of the weak--we view it as a fact of life, background noise that we learn to screen out. If we cared, we'd have impeached this president by now.
We have a chance, this November, to send a strong statement, not just to our politicians but to the whole world, that Americans have had enough of the kind of leadership that has given us one crisis after another ever since 2001. Things have not gotten better under Bush leadership, they've gotten much, much worse. Maybe we've finally hit bottom, and can begin, battered but determined, to make our way back up.
