War of the Worlds Cartoon Show
by digby
Ooooh. I think Fareed Zakaria just stepped in some very deep doo-doo:
Nine years after 9/11, can anyone doubt that Al Qaeda is simply not that deadly a threat?
Holy neocon, Batman. My head is spinning.
Since that gruesome day in 2001, once governments everywhere began serious countermeasures, Osama bin Laden’s terror network has been unable to launch a single major attack on high-value targets in the United States and Europe. While it has inspired a few much smaller attacks by local jihadis, it has been unable to execute a single one itself. Today, Al Qaeda’s best hope is to find a troubled young man who has been radicalized over the Internet, and teach him to stuff his underwear with explosives.
I do not minimize Al Qaeda’s intentions, which are barbaric. I question its capabilities. In every recent conflict, the United States has been right about the evil intentions of its adversaries but massively exaggerated their strength. In the 1980s, we thought the Soviet Union was expanding its power and influence when it was on the verge of economic and political bankruptcy. In the 1990s, we were certain that Saddam Hussein had a nuclear arsenal. In fact, his factories could barely make soap.
The error this time is more damaging. September 11 was a shock to the American psyche and the American system. As a result, we overreacted.
Gosh, do you think invading a country that hadn't attacked us was an overreaction? Really? Hmmm.
I'm glad to hear him say all this. Of course we dirty hippies screamed ourselves hoarse for years about this --- and got a face full of fist for our trouble. My favorite personal post about it was one from 2004, called "War of the Worlds." Here's a short excerpt:
From the beginning we have behaved as if this was a threat so unprecedented that we didn't have to observe any previous notions of civilized behavior --- as if it were War of The Worlds and aliens were trying to colonize the planet rather than a bunch of clever criminals armed with box-cutters and a suicidal excuse to kill in the name of God. We invaded Iraq with too few trained troops, no help or input from the experts in nation building and peacekeeping and now we find ourselves in the worst possible situation. We are seen as arrogant, violent and inept. This should be expected when the government and the likes of Rush Limbaugh (who is piped in every day on Armed Forces Radio) encourage our military to act like barbarians by lying to them and the public about the nature of the threat and the identity of the enemy. We may not be facing aliens from a foreign planet, but we have now sown the seeds of an anti-American backlash that encompasses this planet and may well last for generations.
It's felony stupid for a major power to demonstrate its weaknesses. I think there used to be a time when a US Government representative could go to the UN and produce evidence of a threat and most of the world would believe it. Do you think that's true now? I don't even think the US will believe it. And even if they want to, they won't trust the information because we proved once before that our vaunted high-tech intelligence services couldn't find water if they fell out of a frigging boat. Foolmeoncewon'tgetfooledagain and all that rot.
It's going to be interesting to see how Zakaria's piece will be greeted by the right and the Village punditocrisy. I didn't think people were allowed to say that Al Qaeda isn't much of a threat, but maybe we've moved on now and are more concerned with the more serious threat from within --- our secret Muslim president's plan to take everyone's money and give it to gay people.
This post about the Fighting 101st keyboarders' outraged reaction to Spielberg's War of the Worlds is also pertinent. The poor dears worked themselves up into a frenzy.
Update: And then, there's this: The true cost of the Iraq war: $3 trillion and beyond
.