(Editorial note - this entry began as a reply to a post in our forums, but has been co-opted for entry here. To follow the full conversation, visit here.)

None of the ‘War on Terror’ stuff is cut and dried, and good people can (and do) have disagreements. With all of the disinformation put out there, it is difficult to sift out the reality of the situation.

If there are terrorists who seek to harm us, I want them dead. That doesn’t explain our invasion of Iraq, and the deposing of the leader we propped up for 30 years. Even though he was clearly not a benevolent leader, I cannot remember being ashamed to be an American as profoundly as I was the day he was hanged. He walked to the gallows like a man while the Wahabists taunted him, and we bear the responsibility for it. If the standard of punishment for trampling on the rights of citizens and killing people were to be applied similarly in Washington, we couldn’t carry out the necessary hangings in a month. Hm…. maybe we can learn a thing or two from them….. [/incendiary rhetoric]



This administration makes no distinction between the terrorist slimes who carry out 9-11 type events, and the indigenous forces that resist being occupied, claiming the prerogative to imprison both indefinitely and without independent review, designating them ‘terrorists’. To them, anyone who resists American designs for regional hegemony are terrorists.



The validity of that viewpoint simply breaks down on closer inspection. Were martial law declared here, and troops sent into neighborhoods to suppress the exercise of rights and to subjugate the people, you’d see a whole new class of ‘terrorists’ defined - and it’s likely that I’d be on that list (oh jeesh…. if I wasn’t on some watch list before, I probably am now….). The concept of blowback isn’t some magical construct that can be debunked - it is simply a description of human nature. If you invade a person’s home and neighborhood, he is likely to be unhappy about that, and to want the invaders to go away. The stronger among that group will likely take covert action to win back the freedom over his home. That doesn’t make him a terrorist, and in fact gives him a better claim to the holy mantle of the spirit of the American revolution than the train wreck in Washington.