Smarter People Than Me Agree...
Published by BG on Thursday, May 31, 2007 at 10:11 AM.Brilliant article, worth a read even if you have to watch the advertisement to get there:
America is not Bush | Salon.com
America is not Bush | Salon.com
President Bush's conception of a global war on terror is not the Cold War. There is no consensus around its assumptions. On the contrary, its premises have been refuted by their own applications. The collision of Bush's fantasies with reality has stripped them bare.
The current challenge is not a struggle against a totalitarian foe.
It is not, as Bush has said, "the ideological struggle of our time."
It is not an ideological war.
It is not a battle against an enemy called "Islamofascism" -- a confected category that conflates Bush's idea of war not only with the Cold War but also with World War II.
Most important, it is not a struggle for national survival against an existential threat. Jihadism and its use of terror are, of course, a dangerous threat, but they do not, and cannot, destroy the United States as the Soviet Union could do.
From these false assumptions flow false choices, including the false choice between law enforcement and the administration's so-called war paradigm. Instead, law enforcement and military force both must be essential instruments, along with diplomacy, including public diplomacy.
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