Glenn Greenwald, on the idea that war criticism will “embolden the enemy”:
Mature societies do not make decisions by wondering what the Bad People want and then automatically doing the opposite. That is the mindset of a child.
This is what I’ve been thinking for some time but hadn’t thought to put into such simple, direct words. Bravo.
I’ve heard Dick Cheney or others say things like, “Osama bin Laden is probably smiling at the idea of all these war protesters.”
So what if he is? Who the hell cares what he thinks? Why are you imprisoned by the thoughts and feelings of a crazy human being? Why give him that legitimacy?
The mindset of a child.
The Bush Administration’s inability to communicate the necessity for a multi-region War against Islamic-fascism doesn’t invalidate the necessity for this violent struggle. They are just as unrelated as is your point. This is a necessary war, mistakenly marketed and mis-represented.
The American public is presently fixated on their distaste of the Bush-Admin, pleasantly ignoring the geopolitically tectonically-shifting world about them — and more troubled by the cost of gasoline than the cost of their inflated lifestyles on world stability and viability.
Eat. Drink. Be merry.
rob@egoz.org
You realize you just said two contradictory things? It’s a necessary war but it’s also unnecessary because we can change our lifestyles instead? We’re not even fighting a war. We’re involved in someone else’s civil war.
People who think this is a necessary war should get their asses over to Iraq. Now. Don’t fucking stop at Starbucks for a latte.