When Will The Masses Get IT? It's ALL Our Fault?

Annie

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Nov 22, 2003
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Lileks strikes!



http://www.newhousenews.com/archive/lileks060706.html

COMMENTARY

Self-Loathing and the Denial of Terrorism

BY JAMES LILEKS


You're an enlightened world citizen. Your T-shirt says "9/11 was an inside job." You're pretty sure we're living in a fascist state, that President Bush taps the Dixie Chicks' phones, Christian abortion clinic bombers outnumber jihadis, and the war on "terror" is a distraction from the real threats: carbon emissions and Pat Robertson. Then you learn that 17 people were arrested in a terrorist bomb plot. How do you process the information? Let's take it step by step.

Gosh, that's horrible, you think. But no -- that's what they WANT you to feel. Recall the prime directive: Question Authority (unless he's a college professor). The plotters must have been impoverished olive farmers radicalized by the removal of Saddam Hussein. Why, if someone came in and toppled your president, you'd go to their country and ... well, you'd thank them. Unless they did it for the wrong reasons! Then you'd blow something up. Like an SUV dealership. At night. Anyway, you understand; you care a lot about Iraqis these days. You think about Iraq more than China, to be honest, but it's not as if you'll scrape off your "Free Tibet" bumper sticker -- unless it's to make room for "Free Darfur." Or "Hands Off Darfur," depending.

Wait a minute: The "terrorists" were Canadian? You can understand someone blowing up trains in Spain and London. They sent troops to an illegal war cooked up by neocons who want to kill brown people for Exxon and Jesus, or something. You can understand, reluctantly, blowing up teens in an Israeli pizza parlor, because the Jews took the West Bank from the sovereign, ancient nation of Palestine. (How can a liberal socialist country behave so poorly? The world is full of mysteries.) But Canada? Isn't Michael Moore from Canada? You can get medical marijuana from married gay doctors in Canada, and no one has guns. You console yourself: Maybe they were really planning to attack the U.S.

You realize the suspects were all Muslim, and you dread the inevitable pogroms. Haven't been any yet, but any day now. You read that a mosque was vandalized in Toronto after the arrest, and you feel a certain grim relief. Finally, racism! Banners. If you're going to have a march, you'll need banners.

But wait. You read that the suspects were not connected to al-Qaida, and you're confused for a moment. Maybe it won't be over if they get Osama bin Laden (provided he isn't really in an supersecret Idaho prison). What if the "terrorists" hate you for their own reasons? The evildoer-in-chief said "they hate our freedoms" -- as if we have freedoms, really, just try and get a bike-messenger job that has full health benefits. But what if rights and mixed-sex education and an economy based on sustainable hemp-based art installations mean nothing to them?

Maybe you could convince them to hold off while you fix Amerikkka. At least you can get it down to one k. Maybe if the Democrats take the House back. A 10-seat swing won't make the imams cool down, but 20 seats, in red states? Would that be a good-faith effort?

You worry this will push Haditha off the front page. It's very important that everyone concentrate on the atrocities committed by U.S. troops every day. (It's such a relief not to have to pretend to support the troops anymore.) Anyway, nothing happened. Nothing blew up. If the suspects were planning something, they didn't do it, and this proves we can handle this as a law enforcement matter. Even though the police are racists.

Your head hurts.

You have a friend in Toronto. She's cool. It would kill her if these arrests were made possible by NSA eavesdropping.

You find yourself almost wishing there was another real attack, so people could see the logical consequences of "fighting back" after 9/11. Yes, it would be bad, but sometimes you have to break an egg to show people the health impact of omelettes. Is it wrong to wish the Canadian terrorists might have succeeded?

Shouldn't you know the answer to that question?

June 7, 2006
 
That my friends, that is the thought processes of 95% of my state's leadership.

"To find peace, we have to start a DIALOG with our enemy!"

Fockers.

:(
 
dmp said:
That my friends, that is the thought processes of 95% of my state's leadership.

"To find peace, we have to start a DIALOG with our enemy!"

Fockers.

:(

Yes we must "understand their rage"..That will alleviate them from wanting us all DEAD!!:(
 
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Bonnie said:
Yes we must "understand their rage"..That will alleviate them from wanting us all DEAD!!:(

This keeps reminding me of the scene in Independance Day where the president is talking to the alien. The guy says that he'd like to negotiate a peace and that he's sure there's a way to co-exist (negotiation is pretty much all that's left against invincible, genocidal aliens), much like libs want to do with Arab terrorists. The alien's response, much like the Arab terrorists, is "No peace." Then, just like hippy peaceniks, the next question is, "What do you want us to do?" Just like the Arab terrorists, the alien simply replies, "Die!" The difference is that the president immediately started trying to figure out how to eradicate the little maniacs, while we keep trying to figure out why they want us dead and what we can do to get them to stop, even though we already know the answers to those questions.

Anyway, it's another liberal control issue. Liberals like to think that they can control anything. Just like we can control the weather by driving hybrids, we can control the terrorists by talking to them.
 
Hobbit said:
This keeps reminding me of the scene in Independance Day where the president is talking to the alien. The guy says that he'd like to negotiate a peace and that he's sure there's a way to co-exist (negotiation is pretty much all that's left against invincible, genocidal aliens), much like libs want to do with Arab terrorists. The alien's response, much like the Arab terrorists, is "No peace." Then, just like hippy peaceniks, the next question is, "What do you want us to do?" Just like the Arab terrorists, the alien simply replies, "Die!" The difference is that the president immediately started trying to figure out how to eradicate the little maniacs, while we keep trying to figure out why they want us dead and what we can do to get them to stop, even though we already know the answers to those questions.

Anyway, it's another liberal control issue. Liberals like to think that they can control anything. Just like we can control the weather by driving hybrids, we can control the terrorists by talking to them.

I think possibly Canada is finally "getting it" given they found out their newly elected Prime Minister was to be beheaded right in front of parliament, and televised.
 

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