Thought provoking Brit piece on terrorism

I found this on YouTube the other day - it's a video, obviously English made, or at the very least told from the British point of view. It explores the question of why terrorism isn't being thought about differently, specifically in the wake of the 2005 bombings in London, which was only 18 months ago. I figure this is apropos to us in America for two reasons: We are England's most important ally (and vice versa), and also because of British soldier hostage crisis, which mercifully came to an end yesterday.

American society has become so corrupted and frightened in the face of 9-11, that many among us are now easily deceived by our leaders. It's not an exaggeration to say that our very way of life hangs in the balance - our Democracy. I don't count myself as among the gullible or easily deceived, but really, we (including me!) don't make it easy these days on politicians who operate with their own agenda, constituents be damned.

As I watched this video, I thought back to an interview of General Tommy Franks I read in Cigar Aficionado three or four years ago. I've referred to this quote several times, but it bears repeating:

What is the worst thing that can happen in our country? The worst thing that can happen is, perhaps—and this is my personal opinion—two steps. The first step would be a nexus between weapons of mass destruction of any variety. It could be chemical, it could be biological, it could be some nuclear device; and terrorism. Terrorists or any human being who is committed to the proposition of terror, try to just create casualties, not for the purpose of annihilation, but to terrify a population. We see it in the Middle East today, in order to change the mannerisms, the behavior, the sociology and, ultimately, the anthropology of a society.

That goes to step number two, which is that the western world, the free world, loses what it cherishes most, and that is freedom and liberty we've seen for a couple of hundred years in this grand experiment that we call democracy.

That's about as succinct of a quote as I've heard from anyone about terrorism, the 9-11 attacks, or post-9-11 America.

The right-wing political talking heads among us are so busy marginalizing not only the terrorists who did this to us, but everyone like them. They are also shameless to attack and smear anyone who doesn't agree with them politically - the phrase "If you don't ____________, then you're siding with the terrorists" has become very mainstream in the Republican Party and Dick Cheney is the proud father. It doesn't hurt one bit to go back and remember what some have said.

I'm not going to do a laundry list here, there are a few that stick out in my mind, most notably asinine Ann Coulter: "We should go in and bomb these countries and convert them all to Christianity."

When you read that, you might laugh - I do, on a certain level. But, when I think about the many people who agree with her, millions in fact, my smile disappears quicker than it came.

What we really need to do is to analyze WHY the terrorists did to us (and our allies like the U.K. and Spain) what they did, and then try and think about what we can possibly do to prevent it. Of course, this has been suggested before.

Remember what the Right, and the Bush Campaign, did to John Kerry in 2003-2004 when he merely insinuated this approach? He was portrayed as the biggest pussy in America this side of Jane Fonda (and some called him worse things than she ever heard, and no, I'm not defending what Fonda did in North Vietnam).

But, Kerry was right about the necessity for a new approach.

Our foreign policy could be twice as effective for arguably half the money we spend annually on defense. I heard this on Thom Hartman's show the other day, and since he is quite literally the smartest guy I've ever heard on radio, I'm inclined to believe him - the U.S. spends more on defense than every other country on Earth combined. Even if that's not true, it can't be far off from the truth.

Just like the War on Drugs, the War on Poverty and the War on Illiteracy need to be rethought, so does our War on Terrorism.

Any right-winger reading this would immediately call me a name to make him/her feel better, such as a Pinko Commie. Fine - we live in America. But, for heaven's sake, get a new slur, will you? Pinko is so 1955. I'm a good American and I pay my taxes and obey the law - the least the right could do is have the common decency to use a contemporary slur when I opine that war should be the last resort, not the first one.

Anyway, I'm fairly certain I'm right - we need a fresh approach to terrorism - a new way of thinking to help our country get out of the hole we are in domestically and internationally.

President Bush only has 654 days to go. That's a looong time to wait for new leadership. I urge you all to write your members of Congress to address these important issues: most notably Defense, Homeland Security, the War in Iraq, and the Environment.

I'm waaaaaay behind on letter writing, but I plan on catching up this weekend and on Monday. I will share with you what I write.