Juan Cole: Arguing with Bush (Is "Terrorist" a code word for Muslim?)

[BurtWorm]

Duh! We should force the Bushists to spit it out: they want Americans to think of this as a war against Muslims, not just against terrorism. They come close to admitting it. That's what the conflation of 9/11 with Iraq is all about. That's why Bush keeps talking about fighting "them" there, rather than here. The fact is, an American terrorist is not going to go to Iraq to fight the US. Nor is a Basque terrorist, or a Japanese terrorist, or an Australian terrorist. The truth is, there's no guarantee that an Islamic terrorist won't strike here just because "we're" fighting the war over "there" either.

Juan Cole is more eloquent than I on the subject:

http://www.juancole.com/2005/06/arguing-with-bush-bushs-speech.html

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Arguing with Bush

Bush's speech.



"The terrorists who attacked us and the terrorists we face murder in the name of a totalitarian ideology that hates freedom, rejects tolerance and despises all dissent.


"Terrorists" are not a cohesive ideological category like "Communists" as Bush suggests. Lots of groups use terror as a tactic. The Irgun Zionists in 1946 and 1947 did, as well. Also ETA in Spain, about the terrorist acts of which Americans seldom hear in their newspapers (they are ongoing). The Baath regime in Iraq engaged in so little international terrorism in the late 1990s and early zeroes that it was not even on the US State Department list of sponsors of terrorism. Bush could take the above rationale and use it to invade most countries in the world.



"To achieve these aims, they have continued to kill: in Madrid, Istanbul, Jakarta, Casablanca, Riyadh, Bali and elsewhere.


Yes, and these were al-Qaeda operations, and you haven't caught Bin Laden or al-Zawahiri.



"The commander in charge of coalition operations in Iraq, who is also senior commander at this base, General John Vines, put it well the other day. He said, We either deal with terrorism and this extremism abroad, or we deal with it when it comes to us."


This is monstrous and ridiculous at once. The people in Fallujah and Ramadi were not sitting around plotting terrorism three years ago. They had no plans to hit the United States. Terrorism isn't a fixed quantity. By unilaterally invading Iraq and then bollixing it up, Bush and Vines have created enormous amounts of terrorism, which they are now having trouble putting back in the bottle.



"Our military reports that we have killed or captured hundreds of foreign fighters in Iraq who have come from Saudi Arabia and Syria, Iran, Egypt, Sudan, Yemen, Libya and others."

Maybe 8 percent of the fighters in Iraq are foreign jihadis. Of the some 25,000 guerrillas, almost all are Iraqi Sunni Arabs who dislike foreign military occupation of their country. You could imagine what people in Alabama or Kentucky would do if foreign troops came in and tried to set up checkpoints in their neighborhoods.

<more at link>

[BurtWorm]

1. kick

[Deja Q]

2. They'd be against Christians if they inhabited the oil-rich lands.

It's not truly about religion. It's about peak oil.

[BurtWorm]

3. It's not what it's really about that they're trying to sell.

They're trying to sell a holy war, because they believe that has deep resonance among the public, which, they believe, will forgive them for a war against barbarians much more readily than for a war for PNAC and Exxon. But they can't call it a holy war, because they also have alliances with Islamic royals, and because it's impolite to talk in such terms.

[harlinchi]

6. Ain't they Christian in Venezuela?

[BurtWorm]

7. No. They're commies in Venezuela.

;)

[KharmaTrain]

4. Islamo-Fascist...The New Communists

I've long felt what the Repugnicans, and especially the old cold warriors, needed was a bogie man to replace the Commies after the Soviet Bloc fell.

For years they couldn't find the right one. There was the Chinese but this just didn't seem to get much traction. Then came Bin Laden/911 and all of a sudden we now have more than just "terrorists"...this is a worldwide conspiracy/movement...wrapped in religion and greed. Over the past couple years this figure has been molded into one quasi meance...just like the Communist threat. Bin Laden is Hussein is Khadaffi is Khameni and so on. Broad brushes work good when you are feeding chattle to sheeple.

[BurtWorm]

5. And it's amorphous enough to include Kim Il Jung in a pinch

But mostly they want us to think Islamo-fascist. And they don't mind if we think "Muslim" in general either, I think.

[KharmaTrain]

8. Listen To Frank Gaffney...Makes My Skin Crawl

There's a great Penn & Teller video with this slimeball...all but says civil liberties mean shit during "war" and uses the Islamo-Fascist term to paint this big boogie monster lurking at our doorstep.

The common bond between these goons and the fundies is that need for fear to keep their horde in line...and to keep their own power enhanced.

[frictionlessO]

9. Nominated! Juan Cole is just the ricotta in my lasagne!! Love his wisdom!

Thanks for this post, I hope other nom it up as well! Juan has been so very right about so much regarding Iraq. I'd also suggest him as regular reading at his blog. The ammo he gives us in his dissertations is priceless when arguing the more complicated sides of this war with a neocon bushbaby.

[BurtWorm]

10. Thank you!

[frictionlessO]

11. Your welcome and I wish more people would kick this.

:toast:

[BurtWorm]

12. me too

[Tinoire]

Juan Cole ROCKS! Thanks for posting... n/t

[Tinoire]

13. Juan Cole ROCKS! Thanks for posting... n/t

[librechik]

14. insurgents have the same "ideology" as 9/11 attackers

I kept wondering what he meant by that. How vile.

He might just as well say the attackers and the insurgents are both bad people and we are at war against badness and it will last until we have victory over badness, and until then I am in charge and we are in a wartime footing so just call me a dictator, it's easier. K?

for one thing, are we 5 years old? This is a stupid, stupid plan! And it turns us into racists and murderers as a country! I'm not on board for that!

And why does he never talk about making peace??? Isn't that the point of war in the first place?

Will America really buy this shit???

[BurtWorm]

15. TomDispatch.com had a great essay yesterday on Bush's moral "clarity"

http://tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=4027

For at least 30 years now, the right has fought against, the Republican Party has run against, and more recently, the Bush administration has claimed victory over the "moral relativism" of liberals, the permissive parenting of the let-them-do-anything-they-please era, and the self-indulgent, self-absorbed, make-your-own-world attitude of the Sixties. Since September 11th, we have been told again and again, we are in a different world... finally. In this new world, things are black and white, good and evil, right and wrong. You are for or you are against. The murky relativism of the recent past, of an America in a mood of defeat, is long gone. In the White House, we have a stand-up guy so unlike the last president, that draft dodger who was ready to parse the meaning of "is" and twist the world to his unnatural desires.

In his speeches, George Bush regularly calls for a return to or the reinforcement of traditional, even eternal, family values and emphasizes the importance of personal "accountability" for our children as well as ourselves. ("The culture of America is changing from one that has said, if it feels good, do it, and if you've got a problem, blame somebody else, to a new culture in which each of us understands we are responsible for the decisions we make in life.") And yet when it comes to acts that are clearly wrong in this world -- aggressive war, the looting of resources, torture, personal gain at the expense of others, lying, and manipulation among other matters -- Bush and his top officials never hesitate to redefine reality to suit their needs. When faced with matters long defined in everyday life in terms of right and wrong, they simply reach for their dictionaries.

[Karenina]

16. Kick!

:kick: