ON FLYPAPER, CRUSADES, AND THE MISSION

ON FLYPAPER, CRUSADES, AND THE MISSION
When George W. Bush So Often Speaks in Code Words, Someone Should Tell Him to Shut Up. His inept continued misuse of language only makes matters worse.  Few will forget his unfortunate labeling of the  post 9/11 battle as a modern day CRUSADE. In the Middle East, site of so much plunder and pillage in defense of one god against another, few have forgotten the words of Gerald Boykin who spoke about his mighty god being greater than the Islamic god and Satan.  These are the sort of people on a mission in Iraq.  May god help us. Or may god leave the people of the Middle East to settle things for themselves.

Bush might also want to rethink using the word mission, as its secondary meaning of sending a light out into the world to convert those who live in darkness plays not so well to darker skinned people who see the white man’s blessed burden for what it is.

Bush so often puts things in simple terms so easy to understand.  What he fails to understand is that to look at complex things in simple ways is simply dumb.  The nature of our enemy is more difficult to understand than the nature of the man who would lead us in the battle.

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[BRYAN BENDER/BOSTON GLOBE] The studies [by the Saudi Arabian government and an Israeli think tank], which together constitute the most detailed picture available of foreign fighters, cast serious doubt on President Bush's claim that those responsible for some of the worst violence are terrorists who seized on the opportunity to make Iraq the ''central front" in a battle against the United States.
  … . .American intelligence officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, and terrorism specialists paint a similar portrait of the suicide bombers wreaking havoc in Iraq: Prior to the Iraq war, they were not Islamic extremists seeking to attack the United States, as Al Qaeda did four years ago, but are part of a new generation of terrorists responding to calls to defend their fellow Muslims from ''crusaders" and ''infidels."

[COLBERT I. KING/WASHINGTON POST]The ranks of terrorist groups, however, also include young men and women from the middle class. The feelings they seem to share across the board, she [Jessica Stern, then a lecturer at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and author of "Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill."] said, had to do with humiliation, a desire for a clear identity, and a belief that they can control more through their deaths than through their lives. They have come to see murder-suicide and martyrdom as just rewards for avenging the harm done to their religion and to Muslims in other countries.

[ROGER SCRUTON/TIMES ONLINE]Resentment will always prefer indiscriminate mass murder to a carefully targeted punishment. Indeed, the more innocent the victim, the more satisfying the act. For this is the proof of holiness, that you are able to condemn people to death purely for being bourgeois, rich, Jewish, or whatever, and without examining their moral record.

[MAHA] I've been re-reading Eric Hoffer's The True Believer (copyright 1951). Hoffer's analysis of fanaticism in the mid-20th century gets closer to the reality of the jihadists than Roger Scruton did last week. I wish I could post the whole book; on every page I see passages that relate to what we're going through today, and not just with terrorists. 

The True Believer, Hoffer wrote, is a person who feels incomplete and insecure. "His only source of strength is in not being himself but part of something mighty, glorious and indestructible," Hoffer writes.

[MICHAEL SCHEUER/ANTIWAR] Yes, Pape has documented both the valid logic behind the use of suicide attacks – they are an effective weapon for an inferior force fighting a great power, especially a pain-averse, democratic great power – and the reality that groups using such attacks are playing for strategic stakes: Their goal is victory, not mere destruction. The suicide attacks by each of the groups studied in Dying to Win, Pape concludes, were "mainly a response to foreign occupation rather than the product of Islamic fundamentalism." In sum, America faces a logical, patient, and deliberate enemy, one with clear strategic goals. This enemy is attacking because he perceives his country, culture, and/or religion are under attack.
HAT TIP: [KATHY FLAKE/WHAT DO I KNOW]

Comments

[Kate]

That thing about humiliation is interesting. Wole Soyinka's book 'The Climate of Fear' is subtitled 'The Quest for Dignity in a Dehumanizing World.' He asserts that religious fanaticism is the main motivator but that humiliation is another. We all want to live dignified lives, Soyinka says, but many are denied the opportunity because of poverty, oppression, and powerlessness in the face of global change.

Great post, Heretik.

[Night Bird]

Heretik, you do have a way with words. Apparently, the God of George Bush is a good American and a Republican, very patriotic and loyal to American foreign policy. He is not a God who judges or questions, but a God who legitimizes projects of war and domination.

[wanda]

Bush puts things in simplistic terms because he is a simpleton. Although I'm certain simpletons everywhere are insulted to be compared to him.
Complexities are not his forte. That's why he needs 'unka karl' (better known as 'trud blossom') to get him through all the big stuff. I can only imagine what he must be going through thinking he might have to move over and sit at that big desk if 'unka karl' has to 'go away'. He can't really depend on grandpa dicky, cause too much stress might cause him to croak (we could only hope). Whoever will take care of poor little georgie boy?
I'd bet they've had to lay in an extra supply of 'depends' lately.