Richard WarnickAmerica Goes Abroad in Search of Monsters to Destroy
Today our friend and fellow blogger Frank Staheli, with a little help from HBO, reminded me of something important– what used to be the foundation stone of American foreign policy, in fact. Frank coined a term, “the Radical Islamic Monster,” in an attempt to somehow explain who our nation is supposed to be fighting in two-plus wars.
“Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will [America's] heart, her benedictions and her prayers be.
But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy.
She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all.
She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.”
Last weekend was the finale of HBO’s awe-inspiring miniseries, “John Adams,” about this country’s second president (and John Quincy’s father). Part 6, “Unnecessary War,” was all about President Adams’ ultimately successful struggle to keep the United States out of a potentially ruinous conflict with France. Adams could have taken advantage of pro-war hysteria to win a second term, but he rejected that idea and fired the cabinet members who suggested it.
Frank takes the existence of his so-called “Radical Islamic Monster” as a given. Yet the 2008 Annual Arab Public Opinion Poll suggests there is no such thing. A scientific sample of over 4,000 people in six Arab countries was surveyed by Professor Shibley Telhami and Zogby International.
Would you say your attitudes toward the US are based more on American values or American policy in the Middle East?
POLICY - 80%
VALUES - 12%What TWO steps by the US would improve your views of the US most? Top four answers in order of popularity:
1. Brokering a comprehensive Middle East peace with Israel.
2. Withdrawal of US forces from Iraq.
3. Withdrawal of US forces from the Arabian Peninsula.
4. Stopping economic and military aid to Israel.
This backs up what non-neocons have been saying all along. When I lived in Yemen, there was always a long line at the US embassy of people who wanted to emigrate to America. I was surprised and delighted to discover the proprietor of the little grocery story at the end of our street was an American citizen. In two years, nobody I talked to expressed a disdain for American values. Lots of people complained about our misbegotten foreign policy.
UPDATE: The new Zogby poll also found that a solid majority of Arabs believe that withdrawal of US forces from Iraq would be a good thing, that Iraqis will find a way to bridge their differences. An ABC News/Washington Post poll released today indicates that most Americans don’t believe that Iraq is the “central front in the war on terror,†as President Bush and Sen. John McCain have repeatedly claimed. Most strongly support withdrawal.
April 24th, 2008 at 2:59 am
Couldn’t get this to post over at Franks site, so I’m putting it here…
Liberals are not for ANY kind of fundamentalism. The dictionary definition is:
fundamentalism (fùn´de-mèn´tl-îz´em) noun
1. a. Often Fundamentalism . An organized, militant Evangelical movement originating in the United States in 1920 in opposition to Liberalism and secularism.
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Looks like you have more in common with the monsters then we do.
About the drugs and sex and such, read David Brock’s book “Blinded By The Right.” This guy was hanging with the architects of this crazy right wing movement we’re mired in, and there was every kind of vice everywhere. One scene in the book has Laura Ingraham crawling through a packed dance club on her hands and knees looking for her car keys.
The difference is that right wingers do all those things and keep them hidden, making them much more dangerous. All of Bill Clinton’s accusers were hypocrites, doing worse then he was. Prescription drug use is rampant here in “Happy Valley.”
I don’t spend a whole lot of time worrying about the radical fundies “over there, because there are plenty of them “over here.”
We liberals used to have an old saying before Limbaugh convinced me I was one. Do your own thing!
April 24th, 2008 at 8:03 am
In Bushes defense (and believe me this is difficult), never has there been more tranparency in viewing the corruption that is embodied by OUR monsterous system. It’s all on the table, torture, lies, treasonous spying, blood-lust election rigging and corporatocracy, We just either refuse to take it seriously or are at a loss, in our sheepishness, as to how to deal with it.
In other words, we need look no further for Monsters, than in our own system of government. Fix that and we’ll be doing everyone on the planet a favor.
Thankyou GW.
April 24th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Over at Franks site, Richard said he would like to give Hillary one of those 3 am calls. That is one call she’ll wish she’d never picked up, but I’d give anything to listen in on!
Funny!
You’re absolutely right caveat. If Gore had moved into his big White House, the media would have made sure he didn’t get a thing done and we never would have learned how far these guys were willing to go. What worries me is that we’ve driven into the abyss for so long now, that unthinkable things are common place and blasé. We are actually at the point where, not all that far into the future, young people will have lived in a torture society all their lives. We’ve lived in a criminalizing society for generations already. We’re just starting to see, (not in over-the-air media), that political enemies of the right at the highest levels, (Governors and CEO’s), are being criminalized. We just can’t seem to criminalize the criminals.