New Jersey: Terror Battle Won
The recently uncovered terror plot in New Jersey is a great victory in the war on terror. Not only has a terror cell been disrupted but many lives have been saved. This victory came at very little expense to tax payers, being that no heavy equipment needed to be sent overseas to catch these criminals. Law enforcement officers also managed to capture these enemies to freedom without destroying infrastructure of any kind. No roads or building were bombed by police in their apprehension of these criminals. No innocents were killed as they moved in to make the arrests. Such victories in the war on terror have been far too few in the past several years. Perhaps this is why a recent study of terror attacks has shown such a sharp increase in terror events around the world. Perhaps the Administration has implemented the wrong strategy to fight terror with our war machine.
Because AlQaeda is not an organization of governmental weight and power it is easy to understand how the Administration reacted so poorly to the threat of terrorism. Security from criminals can only come from enforcement of the laws established by like minded people. The more secure humanity feels in their homes and lives the less likely it is that terrorists will muster the resources necessary to strike at us from across the ocean.
The hope of the administration was to bring Democracy to the Middle East. This is by itself a very noble goal. However, political and social change in any culture, including our own, is inherently destabilizing. Hundreds of years of practice living under the rule of a constitutional democracy has left our country still at odds with itself. We are caught between red and blue, left and right ideologies that have become known as the culture war. Americans are still living with the cultural scars of the Viet Nam era as well as the era of the Civil War. Should it be any wonder that the region of the Middle East has been turned into chaos by the introduction of a completely new social paradigm? George Bush wanted to change the world. The chaos and unpredictability of the situation is a direct and inevitable product of that change. After 9/11, changing the world was not what he had been asked to do. Securing our “homeland” was his charge. Keeping us safe from diluted fanatics was his responsibility as President, not reshaping the world in his vision of an ideal. He thought he could do both, but anyone familiar with the dynamics of social change should have known better.
Today the terror movement has been redefined as Islamic Fascism. This brings to mind images of Nazis, Soviets and goose stepping, married with our stereotyped idea of Islam. Promotion of this idea is disingenuous to the task of securing ourselves from acts of terror. The solution to Nazi oppression was brute allied military force. The push to unconditional surrender, save the world from organized Nazi oppression. The implication of the term Islamic Fascism is that these oppressors can be defeated with the same Shermanesque tactics. Bin Laden however, is no Hitler and his organization is not representative of any formal government or religion. This is a fight against criminals that hide behind both concepts to further their personal goals.
Islam is also not the religion we think it is. Nor is Christianity and Judaism what Muslims around the world see. As Israel dominates Jerusalem and Americans dominate Baghdad we slander our own beliefs in the eyes of strangers to those unfamiliar with church and Synagogue. Terrorists also sully the very heart of the practice of Islam and we play into their hands every time we associate terrorist with the faith of those that pray in the Mosque.
The terrorists that we are fighting are not Islamic or representative of a political ideology like fascism any more than KKK members represent Christian values or the concept of a republic. They all fall under the same category of anti social criminal and should be treated accordingly.
The FBI and local law enforcement have done in New Jersey what 4 years in Iraq has failed to do. Their actions have made us safer without encouraging new recruits. These arrests have shown our strength without compromising our principles. Perhaps the time has come to look past the policies of military invasion and superficial labels to the unassuming and effective application of the front line heroes of law enforcement. If we begin to treat AlQaeda as petty thieves and mobsters that is all they will ever be.
Because AlQaeda is not an organization of governmental weight and power it is easy to understand how the Administration reacted so poorly to the threat of terrorism. Security from criminals can only come from enforcement of the laws established by like minded people. The more secure humanity feels in their homes and lives the less likely it is that terrorists will muster the resources necessary to strike at us from across the ocean.
The hope of the administration was to bring Democracy to the Middle East. This is by itself a very noble goal. However, political and social change in any culture, including our own, is inherently destabilizing. Hundreds of years of practice living under the rule of a constitutional democracy has left our country still at odds with itself. We are caught between red and blue, left and right ideologies that have become known as the culture war. Americans are still living with the cultural scars of the Viet Nam era as well as the era of the Civil War. Should it be any wonder that the region of the Middle East has been turned into chaos by the introduction of a completely new social paradigm? George Bush wanted to change the world. The chaos and unpredictability of the situation is a direct and inevitable product of that change. After 9/11, changing the world was not what he had been asked to do. Securing our “homeland” was his charge. Keeping us safe from diluted fanatics was his responsibility as President, not reshaping the world in his vision of an ideal. He thought he could do both, but anyone familiar with the dynamics of social change should have known better.
Today the terror movement has been redefined as Islamic Fascism. This brings to mind images of Nazis, Soviets and goose stepping, married with our stereotyped idea of Islam. Promotion of this idea is disingenuous to the task of securing ourselves from acts of terror. The solution to Nazi oppression was brute allied military force. The push to unconditional surrender, save the world from organized Nazi oppression. The implication of the term Islamic Fascism is that these oppressors can be defeated with the same Shermanesque tactics. Bin Laden however, is no Hitler and his organization is not representative of any formal government or religion. This is a fight against criminals that hide behind both concepts to further their personal goals.
Islam is also not the religion we think it is. Nor is Christianity and Judaism what Muslims around the world see. As Israel dominates Jerusalem and Americans dominate Baghdad we slander our own beliefs in the eyes of strangers to those unfamiliar with church and Synagogue. Terrorists also sully the very heart of the practice of Islam and we play into their hands every time we associate terrorist with the faith of those that pray in the Mosque.
The terrorists that we are fighting are not Islamic or representative of a political ideology like fascism any more than KKK members represent Christian values or the concept of a republic. They all fall under the same category of anti social criminal and should be treated accordingly.
The FBI and local law enforcement have done in New Jersey what 4 years in Iraq has failed to do. Their actions have made us safer without encouraging new recruits. These arrests have shown our strength without compromising our principles. Perhaps the time has come to look past the policies of military invasion and superficial labels to the unassuming and effective application of the front line heroes of law enforcement. If we begin to treat AlQaeda as petty thieves and mobsters that is all they will ever be.
posted by kamuizot at 10:40 AM
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