Adolescent fantasies
Jun. 8th, 2006 10:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabotabbySo al-Zarqawi is dead. I think some people are going to be surprised when this changes exactly nothing in Iraq.
The insurgency will continue until the Americans leave or the occupation becomes such a permanent fixture that people grow tired of resisting. I think, given the resources involved and the generally short attention span of most Americans, the former is a more likely outcome. And it's definitely more positive for the rest of the world if the USians can't win this one. But seriously, the Bushies have really been watching too many James Bond movies. What, you kill the Big Bad and all of his henchmen stop what they're doing and surrender?
The main reason why the Chimpresident can't win his War on Turra is that one can't win a war against an idea. Which his advisers know, I'm certain, and anyway, the point is not to win. Obviously. But the other reason is that the Enemies of Freedum are not leaders that can be eliminated in order to quell a population into subservience. (Incidentally, that's also why an assassination attempt on Bush or Blair would be useless, Mr. Galloway, as nice as it sounds.)
You can't just take out a bad guy in his mountain fortress of doom and call it a victory. That's an action movie, not reality.
Speaking of fantasies, I don't know how many of you saw![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ltmurnau's comment to my post yesterday, but he raised a good point about our local terrorists. (There's also an article in NOW that's worth reading on questions we should be asking.)
The question I'd like to pose is this: 17 people, most of them young, meet in a chat room. They're all involved in the same subculture. Together, they plan an elaborate scheme to storm a building and kill some high-profile, powerful people. (In a chat room! Which every 14-year-old wannabe anarchist knows is a dumb idea.)
Now, imagine that they're all white boys, and the subculture in question is Goth. The media would still be making stupid comments, blaming music and parental neglect, and someone mildly smarter might blame bullying. It might be used as an excuse to crack down on guns or some such. But it wouldn't have widespread international implications, and it certainly wouldn't be used as a pretense to curb the civil liberties of other white Goths.
Just sayin'.
EDIT: More reality-based articles. (Hat tip:frandroid. That last link is in French, BTW.)
The insurgency will continue until the Americans leave or the occupation becomes such a permanent fixture that people grow tired of resisting. I think, given the resources involved and the generally short attention span of most Americans, the former is a more likely outcome. And it's definitely more positive for the rest of the world if the USians can't win this one. But seriously, the Bushies have really been watching too many James Bond movies. What, you kill the Big Bad and all of his henchmen stop what they're doing and surrender?
The main reason why the Chimpresident can't win his War on Turra is that one can't win a war against an idea. Which his advisers know, I'm certain, and anyway, the point is not to win. Obviously. But the other reason is that the Enemies of Freedum are not leaders that can be eliminated in order to quell a population into subservience. (Incidentally, that's also why an assassination attempt on Bush or Blair would be useless, Mr. Galloway, as nice as it sounds.)
You can't just take out a bad guy in his mountain fortress of doom and call it a victory. That's an action movie, not reality.
Speaking of fantasies, I don't know how many of you saw
ltmurnau's comment to my post yesterday, but he raised a good point about our local terrorists. (There's also an article in NOW that's worth reading on questions we should be asking.)The question I'd like to pose is this: 17 people, most of them young, meet in a chat room. They're all involved in the same subculture. Together, they plan an elaborate scheme to storm a building and kill some high-profile, powerful people. (In a chat room! Which every 14-year-old wannabe anarchist knows is a dumb idea.)
Now, imagine that they're all white boys, and the subculture in question is Goth. The media would still be making stupid comments, blaming music and parental neglect, and someone mildly smarter might blame bullying. It might be used as an excuse to crack down on guns or some such. But it wouldn't have widespread international implications, and it certainly wouldn't be used as a pretense to curb the civil liberties of other white Goths.
Just sayin'.
EDIT: More reality-based articles. (Hat tip:
frandroid. That last link is in French, BTW.)
