Abnormal Interests

Duane,

You know my political leanings and yet we are still good friends. However, I really am fearful for this country. Allow me to express my fears and maybe you could be a sounding board. 1. What are we going to do when the terrorists continue blowing up buildings and killing people. Likewise, what are we going to do when they bring it to our shores again - this time as sucide bombers in a crowded Wal Mart or subway station? 2. How do we stop those who want to kill us for no other reason than that we are American?

Joe,

Thanks for the comment and questions. First let me say that I too am afraid of additional terrorist attacks here in this country. It's just that I fear the loss of constitutional rights like habeas corpus and the loss of international respect more. Fear of physical harm to self, family and compatriots is a powerful thing. In my view, it must be faced bravely as we fight for those things that are more important than safety, for example, preservation of our laws and our Constitution. In my opinion, both of these have been under attack by the current administration.

Joe, there can be little doubt that terrorists will attack us again. The issue is how we keep the frequency of these already very infrequent attacks as low as possible and mitigate the possible damage. As the most powerful nation in the world, we have a further obligation to work to reduce the frequency of these attacks on a worldwide basis. Several things go into this. One is an aggressive assault on those who would kill innocents any place in the world. They need to pay a very high and swift price. This is why I supported President Clinton's decision to go after Osama bin Laden and why I supported President Bush's decision to attack Afghanistan in an effort to get bin Laden. Both efforts failed and to some extent, both should be held accountable. However, the political support and will for Bush's efforts were far greater than what Clinton had. After all, he, Clinton, was accused of "wagging the dog." President Bush not only failed in this effort, he diverted resources and political will to Iraq. Without spelling out all the reasons why, I continue to believe our attack on Iraq was immoral. I say this despite the fact that I think Saddam is a despicably evil man. The world has more than its share of them. By the way, I think that a precipitous withdrawal from Iraq would, at this point do more harm than good. But we do need to find a way out.

In addition to an aggressive assault on the Jihadists, we need to tone down the rhetoric. Calling whole peoples evil and absolutely refusing to talk with their leaders estranges the very elements within a country that are potential or actual voices for moderation.

We also need to allocate our homeland security moneys based on risk analysis rather than political expedient. I'm not sure the Democrats will do this any better than the Republicans but at least we now know that the Republicans have failed.

You asked, "How do we stop those who want to kill us for no other reason than that we are American?" I have a few problems with this question. First, the Jihadists want to kill more than Americans. They have killed all over the world and it is impossible to imagine that many of these attacks were aimed at Americans. This alone would make me question the idea that they want to kill "for no other reason than that we are American." At the end of the day, they kill for a far more crazy reason than that. They kill because they think God wills it in redress of some real or imagined sin against their religion. As long as there are people with unquestioning faith, there will remain a risk that they will determine that God wants them to kill someone or some group. While the Jihadists seem to be trying to corner the market on this expression of faith these days, no religion, including Christianity, is immune to it.

As far as this behavior is motivated by real grievances, we need to evaluate at our policies and determine what we can do, without harming our own legitimate interests or those of our allies, to remove those grievances. I fear that our attack on Iraq was a legitimate grievance on which the Jihadist have and will build cases for further terrorist attacks.

The thought that perhaps disturbs me most is the idea the one party is somehow more interested in protecting America than another. They do seem to disagree on tactics.

I know this reply has been more than a little thin on content and has covered a lot of ground but I do hope it provides a context for you can better understand my thinking.

Your friend,

Duane