The Foiled Terrorist Plot, International Terrorism, and the New Rome
What does the arrest of 24 terrorists at London’s Heathrow airport have to do with our political process?
I do not wish to minimize the mass murder horror that would have taken place had not British police prevented the deployment of explosive devices in carry-on luggage. However, since 9/11/2001 American voters have created a Republican House and Senate, and reelected a Republican President thus placing a Neoconservative government in complete control of the United States. As a result we have a reactionary and anachronistic Supreme Court, the disruption of the checks and balances put into place by the nations founding fathers, the removal of the cornerstone of American domestic policy – separation of church and state, disastrous profligate spending by the Federal government, and the invasion of two foreign countries (the wrong war against terror). In short we have a government that has done little to actually protect us against terrorist cells present within the United States.
Of course, this most recent terrorist event was to have been instigated on foreign soil, and it was, after all, prevented.
Never the less, I am a pessimist I suppose because I no longer trust the average U.S. voter to be able to think his/her way out of a paper bag, much less cut through the complex fabric of interwoven issues involved here.
Oh, and what are these issues, Isaac?
First, international terrorism has nothing to do with specific nations, though it is based on hate of Western nations and most certainly our specific current government. I hope the following points serve to clarify the seeming conflict within my first statement. Second, international terrorism has everything to do with the religious conflict known as the Medieval Crusades that occurred during the first three centuries of the second millennium - the current invasion of Iraq being viewed by Islamic terrorists as just one more Western crusade against Islam. In fact, many of the young jihadists wrong headedly see 9/11/2001 as having been accomplished by the Bush government in order to excuse the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Third, a return to fundamentalism in both Western Judeo-Christian and Middle-eastern Muslim practice exacerbates the underlying religious conflict that causes international terrorism. That religious conflict itself goes back thousands of years to the point in time at which Arab and Jew separated from the same family of tribes. Fourth, the worldwide oil based economy that has created two separate populations - one rich and one poor - directly affects all the factors that contribute to the evolution of international terrorism. Finally, no nation, no political body, especially those here in the United States is dealing with the underlying fabric upon which the pattern of international terrorism is printed. Specifically, the neoconservative, fundamentalist government we are saddled with has taken a defensive national approach to a problem that is “preternational.” *
Instead, we should and must look for international and global as opposed to purely nationalistic solutions based on wars against foreign nations. The prevention of the current diabolical terrorist plot by the British was accomplished with the cooperation of and tips from the government of Pakistan, a Muslim nation. The 24 terrorists arrested so far are all British citizens though practicing Muslims. Both of these facts point to the religious as opposed to the nationalistic basis for international terrorism.
It is important to point out that international terrorists, though Muslim, do not practice Islam as the vast majority of Muslims do. Islam is a religion of peace. I also believe that Christianity is a religion of peace, though I would have a difficult time supporting these statements based on bloody history.
I personally hope that Americans will eventually be able to focus on the actual situation as opposed to the artificial one created and nurtured by the politics of fear used by the Bush administration in order to practice a Neoconservative approach to government that views the United States as the new Rome. It has proven to be a disastrous and failed approach to international terrorism in the first decade of the Twenty-first Century.
* I have coined the word “preternational” based on the Latin, praeter beyond – beyond national concerns.
I do not wish to minimize the mass murder horror that would have taken place had not British police prevented the deployment of explosive devices in carry-on luggage. However, since 9/11/2001 American voters have created a Republican House and Senate, and reelected a Republican President thus placing a Neoconservative government in complete control of the United States. As a result we have a reactionary and anachronistic Supreme Court, the disruption of the checks and balances put into place by the nations founding fathers, the removal of the cornerstone of American domestic policy – separation of church and state, disastrous profligate spending by the Federal government, and the invasion of two foreign countries (the wrong war against terror). In short we have a government that has done little to actually protect us against terrorist cells present within the United States.
Of course, this most recent terrorist event was to have been instigated on foreign soil, and it was, after all, prevented.
Never the less, I am a pessimist I suppose because I no longer trust the average U.S. voter to be able to think his/her way out of a paper bag, much less cut through the complex fabric of interwoven issues involved here.
Oh, and what are these issues, Isaac?
First, international terrorism has nothing to do with specific nations, though it is based on hate of Western nations and most certainly our specific current government. I hope the following points serve to clarify the seeming conflict within my first statement. Second, international terrorism has everything to do with the religious conflict known as the Medieval Crusades that occurred during the first three centuries of the second millennium - the current invasion of Iraq being viewed by Islamic terrorists as just one more Western crusade against Islam. In fact, many of the young jihadists wrong headedly see 9/11/2001 as having been accomplished by the Bush government in order to excuse the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Third, a return to fundamentalism in both Western Judeo-Christian and Middle-eastern Muslim practice exacerbates the underlying religious conflict that causes international terrorism. That religious conflict itself goes back thousands of years to the point in time at which Arab and Jew separated from the same family of tribes. Fourth, the worldwide oil based economy that has created two separate populations - one rich and one poor - directly affects all the factors that contribute to the evolution of international terrorism. Finally, no nation, no political body, especially those here in the United States is dealing with the underlying fabric upon which the pattern of international terrorism is printed. Specifically, the neoconservative, fundamentalist government we are saddled with has taken a defensive national approach to a problem that is “preternational.” *
Instead, we should and must look for international and global as opposed to purely nationalistic solutions based on wars against foreign nations. The prevention of the current diabolical terrorist plot by the British was accomplished with the cooperation of and tips from the government of Pakistan, a Muslim nation. The 24 terrorists arrested so far are all British citizens though practicing Muslims. Both of these facts point to the religious as opposed to the nationalistic basis for international terrorism.
It is important to point out that international terrorists, though Muslim, do not practice Islam as the vast majority of Muslims do. Islam is a religion of peace. I also believe that Christianity is a religion of peace, though I would have a difficult time supporting these statements based on bloody history.
I personally hope that Americans will eventually be able to focus on the actual situation as opposed to the artificial one created and nurtured by the politics of fear used by the Bush administration in order to practice a Neoconservative approach to government that views the United States as the new Rome. It has proven to be a disastrous and failed approach to international terrorism in the first decade of the Twenty-first Century.
* I have coined the word “preternational” based on the Latin, praeter beyond – beyond national concerns.
posted by Isaac at 10:10 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home