I finally got a chance to catch up on the world. You know it is of constant interest to me how our own self loathing will be used against us. It is a sign of how successful the US is that so many inside it have the time and energy to devote to telling us how we are the source of all the worlds problems. I mean, those places that are less powerful have to blame us, since we are on top we have to blame ourselves.
Self examination is of course important. The debate within our society about the morality and effectiveness of our own actions is useful and important. It is only when that debate is confused with the constant whining and self hatred that many who are attracted to the left in the US spew without thinking or reason that it becomes problematic. For instance, I know a number of people who would agree with this absurd statement…
“โRed Kenโ Livingstone, the rabidly anti-American mayor of London who said, โBush is the greatest threat to life on this planet that weโve most probably ever seen,โ” – quote in context
I found an article over at LGF that reminds me that this weakness of ours (the extreme, thoughtless self loathing that passes for self analysis in ivory tower circles) is not an unknown factor to our enemies.
“Finally, bin Laden understood the importance of splitting the West, just like the sultan of old knew that a Europe trisected into Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and Protestantism would fight among itself rather than unite against a pan-Islamic foe. Hit the Spanish and bring in an anti-American government. Leave France and Germany alone for a time so they can blame the United States for mobilizing against a “nonexistent” threat, unleashing the age-old envy and jealously of the American upstart.
If after four years of careful planning, al Qaedists hit the Olympics in August, the terrorists know better than we do that most Europeans will do nothing โ but quickly point to the U.S. and scream “Iraq!” And they know that the upscale crowds in Athens are far more likely to boo a democratic America than they are a fascist Syria or theocratic Iran. Just watch.
In the European mind, and that of its aping American elite, the terrorists lived, slept, and walked in the upper aether โ never the streets of Kabul, the mosques of Damascus, the palaces of Baghdad, the madrassas of Saudi Arabia, or the camps of Iran. To assume that the latter were true would mean a real war, real sacrifice, and a real choice between the liberal bourgeois West and a Dark-Age Islamofascist utopia.
While all Westerners prefer the bounty of capitalism, the delights of personal freedom, and the security of modern technological progress, saying so and not apologizing for it โ let alone defending it โ is, well, asking a little too much from the hyper sophisticated and cynical. Such retrograde clarity could cost you, after all, a university deanship, a correspondent billet in Paris or London, a good book review, or an invitation to a Georgetown or Malibu A-list party.” – quote in context
I highlighted the part about the Olympics because it rings so, so true. More importantly, consider our own elections. All terrorists would need to do is cause an event on or near election day. With the current belief that Bush “stole” the lection on 2000 any disruption will bring open dissent and horror if he is re-elected. They would stop at nothing to claim his election is null and void. As it is a Bush re-election by matter what the margins or numbers will be treated as suspicious and ill handled.