Sunday, February 15, 2015

Anti-terrorist fantasies

I'm not sure what to do about ISIS or "home-grown" terrorists in Europe and elsewhere, but I am pretty sure that overreacting to every albeit horrific act of terrorism is bound to fail. Treating murder as murder seems to me the civilized and smart approach...
Terrorism is murder, whether it is in Paris, Copenhagen or any US town. Every day about 70 Americans are murdered, most by guns. Unless the victims are famous or cute most are ignored by the media. But a minor terrorist attack gets headlines. A YouTube video of a beheading forces the US President to go to " war" in order to avoid being called weak by his domestic political opposition. That's not leadership! Worse, the so called Hawks push for deeper evolvement irrespective of military reality. They live in a fantasy world of US military exceptionalism. (Kenneth S. Brower, "Some thoughts about our so called 'war' on ISIS," excerpted by James Fallows here.)

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