Firstly, kudos to Peter Cairns, it’s good to question the king.
One should really pay attention to this implied existential threat to the US and the west by this so-called “militant Islam”. Especially when the world’s masses were recently polled and concluded that the real threat to Earth is the white house’s militant Christendom.
Realy? American militant Christendom! Yes, really. You’ve a president elected twice and who claims he has constant colloquies with “god”. Not only that, he’s on record saying he answers to higher callings and it was god who beckoned him to invade Iraq as a grand opening to his crusade.
You’ve a president whose pride and joy is an unwavering Pentagon and an apocalyptic evangelical base who will gladly follow him into the pits of eternal shame come hell or high water.
You’ve American generals on record saying “I’ve proven my god is stronger and more righteous than their god [the so-called militant Islamist’s that is].” In reality, the latter generals’ spurious conviction can be attributed to their possession of A10s, Abrams, Strykers and satellite guided weaponry vs. “militant Islam’s” mere IEDs. But of course these generals see it as the triumph of Christianity over Islam because, like their president, they’ve been talking to god too.
The fervor, hubris, blatant lies, preposterous embellishments and massive disinformation are always there too when describing the monumental threat of this mysterious “militant Islam”. In so far as to compare it to that of Stalinist Russia and Nazi Germany. And where are these “militant Islam” massive armies? Point out their vast industrial base, their strategic depth, their air power, their naval long arm; their technological wherewithal, point them out. Yes, yes you’re right, their box cutters manufacturing base is formidable.
It’s OK too to have militant Judaism in a state founded upon occupation, expansionism, apartheid, illegal settlements, armed, murderous settlers, nuclear superiority and disdain for international laws, but Iran must go because of, oh wait, there it is again, “militant Islam”.
It’s really sad that an intellectual midget, a crappy orator and a diseased prevaricator was able to put the great American people in a trance for 6 long years.
These wars launched under the pretext and guise of an Islamic grave threat are really wars launched on ordinary Americans, on their civil liberties, on their privacy, on their freedom to organize and protest, on their freedom to fly, on their due process, on the separation of their state from their church, on the freedom from a monolithic press, on the separation of American powers, on the freedom from being adjudicated and tortured by a Fascist wetback.
Bush is on record saying and I paraphrase “our enemies will not forego any opportunity to harm our country, neither will I.” What’s really silly is to claim his was a gaffe.
There isn’t a day that goes by where Bush doesn’t pray to his suddenly non responsive god that another 9/11 take place and very soon. He’s on a timetable and his chances of pulling a war time FDR 3-termer are fading.
The fact of the matter is America’s arms industry, and by extension the Pentagon, abhor the evitable, especially evitable confrontations with mediocre, disjointed and inferior foes. The evitable is the enemy of the American arms industry and its hubristic presidents, evitablility means the death of profits and procurement of vital resources, it means one-term electability and the erosion of executive powers.
If it’s evitable, by golly the white house-Pentagon combo will make sure it’s inevitable, that combo will seek inevitability and confrontation as if its survival depended upon it. And if a foe isn’t manifesting itself, the latter combo will manufacture it _ today it’s “Militant Islam”, tomorrow it’ll be the war on Serbo-Cambodian Cuisine.