Okay, Osama is a bad, really bad guy. But, sometimes bad guys tell the truth, at least as they see it. If we don’t listen to the enemy and learn what he is thinking and why he is acting as he does, we’re going to have a hard time defeating him. To simply dismiss his latest statements by pronouncing your intent to destroy him is not being very smart. Let’s hope Bush and Kerry’s statements are only campaign talk.
Here are some excerpts from Osama’s talk:
"If Bush says we hate freedom, let him tell us why we didn't attack Sweden, for example. We fought you because we are free . . . and want to regain freedom for our nation. If you undermine our security, we undermine yours."
"I tell you: security is an important element of human life and free people do not give up their security."
"Your security is not in the hands of (Democratic candidate John) Kerry or Bush or Al Qaeda. Your security is in your own hands." (My emphasis)
True, excerpts do not always tell the whole story. But, do you disagree with any of the three excerpts above?
I’m reminded of the furor generated after 9/11 when Reuters (?) commented that your terrorist is my freedom fighter. It was true then and is true now. It’s very difficult to defeat a terrorist unless you understand his or her motivations. We need to defeat the terrorist with guns, ideas and actions. A gun, an idea, an action by itself will not do the job. It has to be a combination.
Saturday, October 30, 2004
It Takes More Than Guns
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1 comment:
Nicely put. In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, any suggestion that the hijackers were even slightly less than demonic was greeted with intense fury by many Americans. I remember writing a response to a Canadian TV commentator, Gordon Sinclair, who, not long after 9/11, penned a fawning article describing America as ‘...the most generous and possibly least appreciated country on earth....’ I considered his whole article both sycophantic and inaccurate, and part of my response suggested that, while 9/11 was a huge atrocity, perhaps American foreign policy over the last fifty years should bear some of the blame; and that an act of terrorism was inevitably a blow for freedom when observed from an opposing viewpoint. Though used to a degree of controversy, I was stunned by the violence of the criticism, including death threats, from Americans who read my response. It would be interesting to measure how much that attitude has softened in four years. I agree that some measure of force is required. I doubt that Al-Zarchawi and his thugs would respond positively to any olive branch of peace, and anyway he needs to face justice. I believe the best place to tackle terrorism is in the spawning grounds. Lack of hope turns kids into terrorists, and without their cannon fodder, the likes of Zarquawi and bin Laden lose all power. But Palestine is probably the biggest spawning ground; what chance a change of U.S. foreign policy there?
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