I think thats a common sense article, Is Terrorism a Mortal Threat?, with good, almost "obvious", yet sadly not obvious (to many) points.
I am guessing many readers may have not noticed the author: Patrick J. Buchanan. Whom most here, and throughout many liberal enclaves, if said, "hey, listen to this piece by Pat Buchanan" they would receive sneers, rebuke, and ridicule. Pre-judging something by some overly-broad generalizations. In common parlance, its also called prejudice and bigotry. Not foreign attributes of many political persuasions, ethnic groups, social strata. Albeit, silently, never acknowledged, always shunned hypocritically via lip service. Cognitive Therapy (CT), is actually a therapy used to "heal" or help people overcome this disabling challenge. As well as arbitrary inference and selective abstraction. I am not sure of the effectiveness of cognitive therapy, and I would be interested from any learned or experience opinions. A side observation (of mine) is that those "tending towards Enlightenment" -- that is those there, thinking they are there, close, to what ever they define as that state -- are far from immune to overgneralization and the other maladies for which CT is used as healing therapy. Should there perhaps be an E2 category -- those who are enlightened, and then via CT, inquiry, ritam, or whatever, have healed most all cognitive disabilities? Of course that raises the possibilities of And E3 an E4 state. Hey, I think we may be able to out label Ron Hubbard. Several over-generalizations, implied or explicit, today and often everyday, here, there and everywhere. Turq, I think you are over-generalizing about "Americans" from a few, or several dozen, traveling Americans. Vaj and Dixon, I think you are overgeneralizing about muslims. Others appear to be overgeneralizing about Jews. And of course, I may be overgeneralizing here. Speaking of Muslims (and perhaps Arabs), I saw an interview this weekend with Nassim Nicholas Taleb on book TV (on CSPAN all weekeds) -- my favorite TV of all. (how can Heroes compare to THIS!). His first book, Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Market, I have partly read and love. His new bool, The Black Swan -- about highly unlikely events -- and their impacts on individuals and society, appears, far-reaching, deeply connected, and highly insightful. A major theme of his is that things are way more random than most suppose -- an that people draw all sorts of causal relations inappropriately -- and too their detriment. A great read for all here, and FFL booklist, candidate. Back to Taleb. Hardly an expousing religious kind of guy, he did hint of his Islamic and or Arab background. To equate some of the overgeneralize, perhaps implied, islamic slurs here recently, and in the past, is quite laughable. Puts such expousers in glorious perspective. YMMV. Back to Pat, if America ends, I won't go th the funeral. I will toast of some good and great things at its wake, though. Amercia is not important, IMO, in the long span of history, relative to attributes it tries to enoble and live by -- an often fails miserably. We can all make our lists -- and the may even have some Venn type overlap. If I woke up tomorrow to find the new nations of Pacifica, Mountaintonia, Zealotecha, Snoberossa, etc, I would not shed a tear. Each seperatley may be able to fulfill the dream of many noble qualities for which America is currently failing, or faultering in. Some of the new nations would enoble some of these qualities better than others. Those that like those qualities an migrate wowards there and live in a society tht suits them. Those with bettr overall qualites will tend to flourish, those with less qualites, or floundering with all through inept administration and/or leader selection processes -- will lose favor -- an have pressure to change and evolve. If Dixon wants a nation strongly adhered to a particular brand of Christian priciples an doctrine, go for it. If Vaj wants to live in a nation that disallows work, tourist or any entry to any muslim, or racial groups with which Islam is associated, then go for it. If Turq wants a society or only hip non-americans, kewl. Create and strive to build these new nations, on the ashes of America. See how well these societies work. That would be the "American spirit" renewed in the American pheonix arising form those ashes. Overgeneralizing about terrorism, ethic and racial groups, persons of various faiths -- what good are they? Over claiming causality of terror to national demise, various practices with particular inner (darshan and spectacular experience) an outer (YF or BK and world peace) -- or even way under evidence correlations of enlightenment with any improved positve attributes -- what good are they? In "New_Morningna" -- a blissfull alpine country, on the coast, with georgeous mountains 14,00) foot mountains, and nearby coastal white sandy beaches (its one helluva a road beteen the two) -- with a minimum 6' break, -- people will leave, at the door, their holsters, over generalizations. and over claiming of causality at the door. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Does this echo your sentiment on terrorism and America B.? Just > curious how close it was. > > Is Terrorism a Mortal Threat? > > It may have been politically incorrect to publish the thoughts on the > sixth anniversary of 9-11, but what Colin Powell had to say to GQ > magazine needs to be heard. > > Terrorism, said Powell, is not a mortal threat to America. > > "What is the greatest threat facing us now?" Powell asked. "People > will say it's terrorism. But are there any terrorists in the world > who can change the American way of life or our political system? No. > Can they knock down a building? Yes. Can they kill somebody? Yes. But > can they change us? No. Only we can change ourselves. So what is the > great threat we are facing?" > > History and common sense teach that Powell speaks truth. > > Since 9-11, 100,000 Americans have been murdered -- as many as we > lost in Vietnam, Korea and Iraq combined. Yet, not one of these > murders was the work of an Islamic terrorist, and all of them, > terrible as they are, did not imperil the survival of our republic. > Terrorists can blow up our buildings, assassinate our leaders, and > bomb our malls and stadiums. They cannot destroy us. Assume the > worst. Terrorists smuggle an atom bomb into New York harbor or into > Washington, D.C., and detonate it. > > Horrible and horrifying as that would be -- perhaps 100,000 dead and > wounded -- it would not mean the end of the United States. It would > more likely mean the end of Iran, or whatever nation at which the > United States chose to direct its rage and retribution. > > Consider. Between 1942 and 1945, Germany and Japan, nations not one- > tenth the size of the United States, saw their cities firebombed, and > their soldiers and civilians slaughtered in the millions. Japan lost > an empire. Germany lost a third of its territory. Both were put under > military occupation. Yet, 15 years later, Germany and Japan were the > second and third most prosperous nations on Earth, the dynamos of > their respective continents, Europe and Asia. > > Powell's point is not that terrorism is not a threat. It is that the > terror threat must be seen in perspective, that we ought not frighten > ourselves to death with our own propaganda, that we cannot allow fear > of terror to monopolize our every waking hour or cause us to give up > our freedom. > > For all the blather of a restored caliphate, the "Islamofascists," as > the neocons call them, cannot create or run a modern state, or pose a > mortal threat to America. The GNP of the entire Arab world is not > equal to Spain's. Oil aside, its exports are equal to Finland's. > > Afghanistan and Sudan, under Islamist regimes, were basket cases. > Despite the comparisons with Nazi Germany, Iran is unable to build > modern fighters or warships and has an economy one-twentieth that of > the United States, at best. While we lack the troops to invade Iran, > three times the size of Iraq, the U.S. Air Force and Navy could, in > weeks, smash Iran's capacity to make war, blockade it and reduce its > population to destitution. > Should Iran develop a nuclear weapon and use it on us or on Israel, > it would invite annihilation. > > As a threat, Iran is not remotely in the same league with the Soviet > Union of Stalin, Khrushchev and Brezhnev, or Mao's China, or Nazi > Germany, or Imperial Japan, or even Mussolini's Italy. > > And why would Tehran, which has not launched a war since the > revolution in 1979, start a war with an America with 10,000 nuclear > weapons? If the Iranians are so suicidal, why have they not committed > suicide in 30 years by attacking us or Israel? > > What makes war with Iran folly is that an all-out war could lead to a > break-up of that country, with Persians, Azeris, Kurds, Arabs and > Baluchis going their separate ways, creating fertile enclaves for al- > Qaida recruitment and training. > > Yet, while talking common sense, Gen. Powell himself reverted to > cliche. "America could not survive without immigration." > > But this is nonsense. From 1789 to 1845, we had almost no > immigration, before the Irish came. Did we not survive? From 1925 to > 1965, we had almost no immigration. Yet, we conquered the Great > Depression, won World World II, became the greatest power on earth > and ended those four decades with an Era of Good Feeling under Ike > and JFK unlike any we had known before. > > Was the America of the 1940s and 1950s in which Colin Powell grew up > in danger of not surviving for lack of immigration? > > In our time, Pakistan, Ethiopia and Czechoslovakia have split apart. > The Soviet Union and Yugoslavia have broken up into two dozen > nations. Terrorism had nothing to do with it. Tribalism had > everything to do with it. > > Race, ethnicity and religion are the fault lines along which nations > like Iraq are coming apart. If America ends, it will not be the work > of an Osama bin Laden. As Abraham Lincoln said, it will be by our own > hand, it will be by suicide. > > > > > > by Patrick J. Buchanan (more by this author) > Posted 09/21/2007 ET > Updated 09/21/2007 ET >
