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And so we Tweet hashtags and phrases in high school French and post GIFs to Facebook. We know what to do; we’ve done this before.
But it has to be said, especially looking at the sick repetition of the same story, that despite fourteen plus years of a war on terror, terror seems to be with us as much as ever, maybe even more. It is time to rethink what we have done and are doing.
We gave up many of our freedoms in America to defeat the terrorists. It did not work. We gave the lives of over 4,000 American men and women in Iraq, and thousands more in Afghanistan, to defeat the terrorists, and refuse to ask what they died for. We killed tens of thousands or more in those countries. It did not work. We went to war again in Iraq, and now in Syria, before in Libya, and only created more failed states and ungoverned spaces that provide havens for terrorists and spilled terror like dropped paint across borders. We harass and discriminate against our own Muslim populations and then stand slack-jawed as they become radicalized, and all we do then is blame ISIS for Tweeting.
Note that it is the strategy of Islamic terror to generate a crackdown in France in order to radicalise French Muslims. Hundreds of French citizens have already traveled to Syria to fight with groups including ISIS.
But I do have this: stop what we have been doing for the last 14 years. It has not worked. There is nothing at all to suggest it ever will work. Whack-a-mole is a game, not a plan. Leave the Middle East alone. Stop creating more failed states. Stop throwing away our freedoms at home on falsehoods. Stop disenfranchising the Muslims who live with us. Understand the war, such as it is, is against a set of ideas — religious, anti-western, anti-imperialist — and you cannot bomb an idea. Putting western soldiers on the ground in the MidEast and western planes overhead fans the flames. Vengeance does not and cannot extinguish an idea.
people are fine with this as long as it's "the other guy." It's always the "other guy" until it's you. Remember that.
originally posted by: theantediluvian
A libertarian friend of mine sent me a link to a featured article on the Ron Paul Institute's website authored by Peter van Buren and republished from his site. Below are a few excerpted paragraphs that I believe everyone needs to read even if they don't want to.
Paris: You Don’t Want to Read This
And so we Tweet hashtags and phrases in high school French and post GIFs to Facebook. We know what to do; we’ve done this before.
But it has to be said, especially looking at the sick repetition of the same story, that despite fourteen plus years of a war on terror, terror seems to be with us as much as ever, maybe even more. It is time to rethink what we have done and are doing.
We gave up many of our freedoms in America to defeat the terrorists. It did not work. We gave the lives of over 4,000 American men and women in Iraq, and thousands more in Afghanistan, to defeat the terrorists, and refuse to ask what they died for. We killed tens of thousands or more in those countries. It did not work. We went to war again in Iraq, and now in Syria, before in Libya, and only created more failed states and ungoverned spaces that provide havens for terrorists and spilled terror like dropped paint across borders. We harass and discriminate against our own Muslim populations and then stand slack-jawed as they become radicalized, and all we do then is blame ISIS for Tweeting.
Note that it is the strategy of Islamic terror to generate a crackdown in France in order to radicalise French Muslims. Hundreds of French citizens have already traveled to Syria to fight with groups including ISIS.
But I do have this: stop what we have been doing for the last 14 years. It has not worked. There is nothing at all to suggest it ever will work. Whack-a-mole is a game, not a plan. Leave the Middle East alone. Stop creating more failed states. Stop throwing away our freedoms at home on falsehoods. Stop disenfranchising the Muslims who live with us. Understand the war, such as it is, is against a set of ideas — religious, anti-western, anti-imperialist — and you cannot bomb an idea. Putting western soldiers on the ground in the MidEast and western planes overhead fans the flames. Vengeance does not and cannot extinguish an idea.
I'm not in total agreement with every word and every idea but overall I think he does a good job of articulating some important points that everyone should keep in mind when considering what they're promoting in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris.
- We've paid an enormous price in human lives, suffering and dollars for 'revenge' and to 'fix' the ME and for what? How many repetitions before we accept the failure of the policies of the last two administrations? I'll spare you the cliche about the 'definition of insanity' but if we continue with more of the same, we can expect more of the same.
- We cannot in our anger and fear give up our civil liberties. Do the ends justify the means? After 9/11, privacy and due process took enormous hits. Today a man who wants to be President and is leading in the polls, talked about expanding the government's ability to close down places of worship and to my horror — my atheist horror — people are fine with this as long as it's "the other guy." It's always the "other guy" until it's you. Remember that.
- We cannot hold accountable innocent people for the actions of a few or even the actions of a few thousand. There is an illiberal, destructive, dangerous and counterproductive current of hate and misplaced blame coursing through the political rhetoric and public discussion. We've gone beyond simple xenophobia and run-of-the-mill bigotry — I've seen countless people promoting the use of nuclear weapons, interment camps, population control and all out call for genocide. There are people talking about refugees as a sleeper army waiting for the moment for millions of them to launch a coordinated attack. THIS IS UTTER LUNACY. Don't allow the rhetoric of hate mongers and zealots to pervert your perceptions. There are more than a billion and a half Muslims in the world, the numbers of terrorists and militants numbers in the tens of thousands.
Do not play your part in the strategy of ISIL/ISIS/Daesh. Do not be complicit in the holy war these monsters are trying to incite. They're counting on you...
Let them down.
originally posted by: Metallicus
a reply to: theantediluvian
I pray that we will just STOP this madness and leave that region. We have no business over there and we have plenty of oil and resources right here at home. Who cares if we pay a couple more dollars for gas if we can get our young men and women out of that hell hole and bring them home.
Leave those people alone and actually give them the freedom we always talk about. No wars of aggression.