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Utopian Turtletop. Monsieur Croche's Bête Noire. Contact: turtletop [at] hotmail [dot] com
Thursday, February 09, 2006
the war on terror
Why the war on terror is a bad idea:
1. The word "war" legitimates the enemy.
2. In a war, any military target is legitimate. I live in Seattle. Boeing is a legitimate military target in a war.
3. No end to terror. "We have always been at war against terror." Orwell's perpetual war state -- the Cold War served the same purpose -- anybody remember the peace dividend?
Of course, these cavils are absurd. President Bush doesn't intend words to hold meanings. He's an emotional whirligig; his words mean what he wants them to mean until he wants them to mean something else.
Terrorism is a crime against humanity necessitating a coordinated international response. The neo-con way of "going it alone" does not work. It fails to apprehend the terrorists and it pisses off everybody else in the world: precisely the result that most endangers ourselves and lots of other people too.
Why the war on terror is a bad idea:
1. The word "war" legitimates the enemy.
2. In a war, any military target is legitimate. I live in Seattle. Boeing is a legitimate military target in a war.
3. No end to terror. "We have always been at war against terror." Orwell's perpetual war state -- the Cold War served the same purpose -- anybody remember the peace dividend?
Of course, these cavils are absurd. President Bush doesn't intend words to hold meanings. He's an emotional whirligig; his words mean what he wants them to mean until he wants them to mean something else.
Terrorism is a crime against humanity necessitating a coordinated international response. The neo-con way of "going it alone" does not work. It fails to apprehend the terrorists and it pisses off everybody else in the world: precisely the result that most endangers ourselves and lots of other people too.
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