Saturday, August 09, 2003
(11:58 AM) | Adam Kotsko:
On being tired of hearing about it
I read this quote in an op-ed in the New York Times:
"Persistent poverty and oppression can lead to hopelessness and despair," said President Bush last March. "These failed states can become havens for terror."
"Terror," huh?
Message to President Bush: I grow weary of your oppressive word-play! Havens for terror? How about havens for armed resistance? How about instead of terror, we call it "armed resistance using unconventional means with a relatively low chance of long-term success"? How about we call it a desperate and probably ultimately misguided attempt to level the playing field? And how about we stop mouthing the words and actually do something that won't cause people to lose all hope and want to kill as many of us as possible?
For instance, "taking out" two of the weakest states in the world in a show of overwhelming force is probably not the way to go, even if one could make the argument that Afghanistan was a necessary intervention. Also, demanding that third world countries pay off their debt when we have unprecedented deficits is probably not the way to go. Subsidizing our agriculture so that the best option for people in poor countries is to get a job making worthless consumer shit to ship back to us is probably also not the way to go.
People all around the world live in more "terror" of America than Americans do of terrorist attacks. Maybe we could have a war against that kind of terror. If we do that, then the terrorists will have won and thus won't feel their best option is to perpetrate massive suicidal attacks against us.
