freecounterpoint: Don't worry, be happy

Sunday, June 04, 2006

Don't worry, be happy

Just a bit of dialogue with these guys in London and Toronto and elsewhere will solve all our problems, says the "reality based community". What kind of dialogue would that be? Perhaps like the little one the French had at Compiègne a while back?

14 comments:

The Darkroom said...: It's a pragmatic approach based on similar situations (IRA again). Given that the US is failing miserably with each "incident" fostering more terrorism, i don't see you in the position to diss it.; 6/04/2006 11:37 AM
The Darkroom said...: There is also the added problem that the US doesn't understand its ennemy. With analysis limited to "they hate our fraydom" (i would understand the statement if it came from the janitor of a 2-year college in North Dakota, but the fucking president...) it's no wonder the war on terror is a complete fiasco. Dialog is the way out (it's also going to be the way out in iran & north korea if there is any).

Policy based on chest-beating and dirty harry rhetoric is foolish and it is leading the us straight to a humiliating defeat. I don't think there is much doubt about that. What is debatable though is whether or not the us looosing the war in iraq would be a good thing. My view is that, for the sake of the planet, a lesson in humility is way overdue - but that is another topic.; 6/04/2006 12:03 PM
Tecumseh said...: Why would all these terrorist attacks (or attempts) be "fostered" by the US? This is a typically pinko, self-flaggelating (and, navel-gazing, too) view of the world, when everything seems to be done as a reaction to what big bad Kapitalist America is doing. Baloney! These guys are plotting and carrying their devilish plots irrespectively -- they have their own motivation and dynamics. The US is doing the best it can under the circumstances; I don't see us "failing miserably" -- this is simply the Left's death wish.; 6/04/2006 12:09 PM
The Darkroom said...: ok - if you aren't failing, in what respect do you see the us succeeding ? Is terror vanishing ? Is the US standing in world opinion bettered ? Is anything ressembling a true democracy being established in iiraq ? Are iraqis better off today than they were under Saddam ?

There is something akin to the proof of the existence of god in your argument (as well as that regarding troops doing an outstanding job): there isn't much in terms of facts to back up your beliefs. Do you have an objective metric ?; 6/04/2006 12:18 PM
Tecumseh said...: More on the Toronto plot:
the RCMP announced terrorism charges had been laid against a dozen Toronto-area men and five teens under the age of 18. The group "took steps to acquire components necessary to create explosive devices" including three tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, police said.
Ammonium nitrate fertilizer is commonly used in terrorist bombs, police said.
By comparison, the truck bomb used to blow up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995, killing 168 people, contained a single tonne of ammonium nitrate.
"It was their intent to use it for a terrorist attack," said RCMP assistant commissioner Mike McDonell.
"This group posed a real threat. It had the capacity and intent to carry out these attacks."

What effing "dialog" is possible with these guys, bent on killing us all? Is there any limit to liberal self-gelding?; 6/04/2006 12:20 PM
Tecumseh said...: Some surprising good sense from a canuck journal:

We are the enemy. You, me and the family down the street.

Yes, there are those who believe if you die or your kids die or some soul you don't know, who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, is blasted to an instant grave, then the world will somehow be better, some supposed oppression will be relieved, some twisted virtue will be advanced.

It is total crap. But total crap is always a big seller.; 6/04/2006 12:26 PM
The Darkroom said...: >>What effing "dialog" is possible with these guys, bent on killing us all? Is there any limit to liberal self-gelding?

Well at least you would know why they are bent on killing you all. Maybe they have a good reason - maybe are just nice Jose Bove types who really don't want McDonald's between their minarets for all i know. that would be an easy one to solve. but they hate our fraydom isn't going to do it.

Is your fear of dialog just an ego-based principle or is there logic in it ?; 6/04/2006 12:49 PM
Tecumseh said...: "Fear of dialog" as opposed to touchy-feely, mamby-pamby liberalism -- is that something they teach in Sci-Po classes for impressionable first-year students at Sorbonne?

This reminds me of my own studies in a big city sometimes ago. A fellow student tried to start a "dialog" with a mugger, after giving him his wallet. The mugger just turned around and blew his brains off. Yeah, the Alan Alda approach works wonders.; 6/04/2006 2:53 PM
The Darkroom said...: >>the Alan Alda approach works wonders

doesn't look like the rah-rah-rah, we're #1, don't fuck with us, our way or the highway works much either...; 6/04/2006 3:56 PM
Tecumseh said...: Well, at least you got a fighting chance this way. What's the preferred alternative of the Birkenstock set? This?; 6/04/2006 4:53 PM
The Darkroom said...: i am not sure i understand why you prefer a method that is verifiably failing.; 6/04/2006 6:25 PM
Tecumseh said...: Far as I can tell, the Marines are defending the fort pretty well in Iraq. Why is that a failure? Having Atta boy flying into a tower, or your head chopped by Zarky sounds like a true failure to me.

Here's another analogy: Cops chase bad guys too, any time of the day. Sometimes they catch them (or kill them), sometimes they don't. And bad guys keep sprouting. Is that a "failure" on the part of the police? I submit not -- that's their job, and part of the price to pay to maintain some kind of law and order in a civilized society. Not a perfect system, but if you know a better system (maybe they have it in Clichy sous Bois?) let me know.

OK, perhaps not a perfect analogy (by definition, analogies are not supposed to be perfect), but I'd say a far better analogy than the one between chasing the IRA and prosecuting the War on Terror.; 6/04/2006 8:37 PM
The Darkroom said...: >>Far as I can tell, the Marines are defending the fort pretty well in Iraq.

I would differ on this. iraq's turned into a slaughter house on their watch and when it's not the garden variety aq types that do the killing it's the thugs from the govt they put in place. I call that a piss-poor job but they need all the cheerleaders they can find so knock yourself out.

>>Here's another analogy: Cops chase bad guys too, any time of the day. Sometimes they catch them (or kill them), sometimes they don't. And bad guys keep sprouting. Is that a "failure" on the part of the police? I submit not -- that's their job, and part of the price to pay to maintain some kind of law and order in a civilized society

imo when the police is incapable of maintaining law and order, they are failing.; 6/05/2006 1:37 AM
Arelcao Akleos said...: So you are saying these incidents, and they have been very few in numbers for three years of this ugly warfare, are the CAUSE of the terrorism? So those Shiites that were just massacred were offed because of what Marines did? And the every other day of blowing up a funeral crowd or marketplace, to see the amusing roll of children's heads, is due to the Horror of Abu Ghraib??
Great. We have Pew and his Snarks. They have Islam and its Zarks.; 6/06/2006 1:13 AM