Realities about Human Nature. Neo-Cons, Take Notice!
Oh, boy. The papers today are full of reports that there’s a big terrorist strike planned for this summer. It’s scary that I catch myself wondering if this isn’t a tactic by the Bush administration to get people “safely” back into fear, and thus rallying around the administration’s policies. It sickens me that I could even suspect something like that, but given the torture, the misleading reasons for going to war, etc., I simply don’t trust the Bush crowd on any level. And I’m not sure if they could do anything to regain my trust. No matter how much I agree with anything they do going forward, I would never be sure their actions weren’t simply calculated to win my trust and then continue to press their agenda.
But let’s assume they genuinely invaded Iraq to make the world safer. It didn’t work. There’s big terrorism planned this summer. Furthermore, the wonderful war on Iraq made things worse, not better. The Guardian reports that our occupation has boosted Al-Qaida’s membership. Fancy that.
Now people, most of this was predictable from day zero. Let’s review some realities of human nature:
- Anger begets anger. When someone gets angry, the natural response is to lash back at them. It takes training and self-control to respond to anger with peace.
- Fighting doesn’t solve anything. I hate to say it, but it doesn’t. Al-Quaida blew up the World Trade Center to get us to leave Baghdad. It didn’t work. All it did was piss us off to the point of leveling one country and invading another. Is there any reason to believe that our attacking them is going to make them suddenly decide to resolve things peacefully?
- There are multiple points of view. We just bombed a religious house of worship, we may well have blasted a wedding into smithereens (including young children), and regardless of intent or chain of command, it seems we’ve tortured and humiliated prisoners in clear disregard of the Geneva convention. If someone did all that to Americans, we’d be livid. Maybe, just maybe, from their point of view, we aren’t all peaches and cream.
I don’t know how this mess can be resolved, or even if it can be. Get things hot enough and they’ll last past one generation. Once it becomes culturally ingrained, conflict is a tenacious bitch. Just look at the Israel and Palestine.
I do know one thing: the policies of this administration have kept the country (and possibly the world) steeped in terror. They have been inept at setting and enforcing a humane chain of command. They have show a distinct lack of forethought and an absurd disregard for thought and planning. For reasons far beyond my understanding, not only have they not been impeached and thrown into chains for using a dubious war to siphon off billions to their friends and business associates, but a remarkable percentage of this country actively supports their policies. Normally, I am content to let people suffer the consequences of their own poor decision-making. Unfortunately, this time the consequences will be born by all of us.
Oh, and by the way… Terrorism expert Robert Pape published a letter in the New York Times discussing that virtually all suicide terrorist attacks over the last 20 years were over issues of foreign occupation. Iraq, anyone?