http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/8418/
Winning the War on Muslim "Terrorists" by Not Fighting
At All
by Stan Moore (Saturday 24 July 2004)
"The American people ought to think carefully about
such matters.
Desire
for revenge never settled any international conflict,
and America,
despite
its military preeminence, cannot fight the whole world
and win. But
American can bankrupt itself by overextending itself
and alienating
former
friends and allies."
There is no reason whatever to believe that Osama bin
Laden or any
other
identified so-called "terrorist" is trying to take
away American
constitutional freedoms, such as freedom of speech,
freedom of
assembly,
freedom of religion, etc. There is no reason whatever
to believe that
Muslim fundamentalists in Afghanistan or Egypt or Iran
or anywhere else
believe they can invade the United States and
establish strict Muslim
fundamentalism amongst the hedonistic American
society.
Rather, the so-called war on terrorism is really a war
of competition
for
planetary resources, which the Americans seek to
control, particularly
economic resources such as petroleum and raw materials
which make the
American way of life possible. The so-called
"terrorists", rather than
waging philosophical war against freedom, are in
reality waging a
defensive
war designed to prevent further American encroachment
on their own
soils,
resources and cultures.
By turning the War on Terrorism into a full-scale,
long-term military
conflict, the basic problems are exacerbated,
prolonged, and guaranteed
to
promote futility in solution-building. More war
requires more
petroleum,
more resources, more violence, more hardware, more
wealth, more
encroachment, more resistance.
If, as American governments were serious about
reducing America's
dependence on foreign oil, or better yet, eliminating
American
dependence
on foreign oil, there would be little terrorism or
little to fight
over. If
America decided to win the war on terrorism by simply
not fighting it
and
thus removing grievances from foreign peoples and
organizations who
wish to
prevent further American encroachment, the war could
be won with
minimal
loss of life and expense.
It was reported this week that the real American
military budget for
this
year was well over $700 Billion -- approaching $800
Billion! Imagine
winning a war by reducing military activity and
reducing American
interventionism around the world! Imagine winning a
war of competition
for
planetary resources by simply going to the marketplace
and purchasing
commodities at prices agreeable to buyer and seller,
without armed
interventionism. If American sought security in its
access to petroleum
in
the Persian Gulf and elsewhere, why should not the
marketplace and
American
demand not provide incentive for oil producers around
the world to sell
to us?
America has a completely backward approach to
commerce. America wants
to
threaten and use military force to ensure access to
markets that
themselves
require American participation to remain viable.
America as a nation
and as
a people would be far better off by drastically
reducing military
expenditures and adventurism and placing those
hundreds of billions of
dollars of military spending into its own
infrastructure and its own
education systems and its own debt reduction in order
to maximize
American
value-added participation in the world marketplace.
Instead of participating in world commerce by strength
of intellect and
production of marketable products and ideas, America's
governing elite
has
shifted to militarism as a profit-maker for the
investor class, but
against
the best interests of the taxpayer and worker. And
America's public is
constantly deceived by the same
military/industrial/media complex into
believing that our "enemies" hate us for who we are,
rather than for
what
we have done.
The 9/11 commission has foisted this sort of mythical
thinking on the
American people, as if America was an entirely
innocent victim of 9/11
and
the only way to solve the "problem" of terrorism is to
multiply the
very
factors that brought 9/11 to us in the first place!
This approach is
highly
profitable to American business in the short-term, but
obscenely
harmful to
the long-term prospects of the American people both
economically,
politically, and ecologically.
We know that the American economy and land use
practices, including
contributions to global warming, long-term food
production, and
economic
growth are simply not sustainable under the laws of
ecological
economics.
Instead of reducing the economy, which is on a
war-time footing, and
reducing our threats to world peace by rolling back
our encroachments
and
provocations against the Muslim World and other world
partners, the
American elite seeks short-term militarism and
long-term bankruptcy. We
would be better off fighting the so-called "War on
Terrorism" by not
fighting at all in military terms. The American people
would be better
off
in the long-term by quitting the process of
provocation and
encroachment on
the soils, cultures, and resources of foreign nations.
We would be better off working cooperatively with our
world neighbors
to
treat "terrorism" as a law enforcement problem, which
requires far less
resource consumption to deal with than military
action. Tens of
thousands
of victims would not be created by so-called
"collateral damage" by
sending
Interpol and the FBI to root out terrorism than by
sending the Special
Forces.
A smaller, sustainable American economy supporting a
smaller
defense-oriented American military would make possible
a stronger
American
future, with resultant peace and ecological health
making for an
improved,
prosperous future.
The American people ought to think carefully about
such matters. Desire
for
revenge never settled any international conflict, and
America, despite
its
military preeminence, cannot fight the whole world and
win. But
American
can bankrupt itself by overextending itself and
alienating former
friends
and allies.
George W. Bush doesn't get this. Neither does John
Kerry. Ralph Nader
does,
and so does Dennis Kucinich. Why are not the best
candidates the most
viable ones in America today? Will America be led to
disaster by the
corporate-directed political parties before Americans
wake up?
Source:
by courtesy & © 2004 Stan Moore
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