Ok, so i've been almost living in the pharmacy at one of any of 3 CVS locations as of late, so of course I have not been keeping up with Jon Stewart's lovely political satire by any means. Today I caught an episode from the 9th when he interviewed Newt Gingrich: http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-february-9-2010/newt-gingrich
For the most part, they were arguing about whether or not the current administration's decision to Mirandize suspected terrorists was radical or not. Jon called for trying terrorists not in military tribunals but in our own justice system-thus defining them in a "criminal context instead of a war context."He claimed that doing otherwise really" gives them more credibility and credence." Newt's response to this was that these terrorists are our "mortal enemies."
I found Newt's remark to be an excellent example of this crazy religiously polarizing rhetoric that some people have been using since 9/11 that actually does in fact give validation to this Jihadi mindset. Take for instance John McCain's quote(amusingly, also on the Jon Stewart show from May 19th) that "This is a transcendent evil that wants to destroy everything we stand for and believe in." ....I hope that people realize how ridiculous this sounds!!
By putting this conflict in these metaphysical terms we are in fact falling right into the hands of the Jihadists and getting ourselves wrapped up in what author and theologian, Reza Aslan, has dubbed a "Cosmic War" in which both sides claim to have God on their side in an epic struggle of good v. evil. Bush reaffirmed this by claiming that "Our responsibility to history is already clear: to answer these attacks and rid the world of evil." I am a cynic is the most strict sense of the word, but c'mon, even the most idealistic person among us can easily see that this is an unwinable and unending battle.
As I've stated in a previous post, Jihadists, like al Qaeda, may go on and on about the actual, real greviances of their Islamic brothers and sisters...but they also offer no real solutions. As i've said, they talk quite a bit of the plight of the Palestinians, but of course establishing a Palestinian state is in direct conflict to al Qaeda's visions of a global Caliphate. Of course the plight of the Palestinians is a real issue that seriously needs to be addressed...and in doing this, we would take away one of al Qaeda's talking points/recruiting tools...which is how we win.
It is certainly a nice thought to think that one day the forces of good will defeat the forces of evil(however one wants to define good and evil and defeat). It will however not be done in the context of the War on Terror or Global Contingency Plan, or whatever they're calling it now. To continue put this conflict, (that is not even one conflict as much as it is many) into these religious terms is both dangerous- as it incites religious tensions- as well as utterly ridiculous...and I hope people will quickly reject this kind of vocabulary when they hear it in the future.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
We may no longer be "top-dog"...but that's ok...
I had recently been reading Fareed Zakaria's book "The Post-American World." Consider these stats from his book:
**The world's tallest building is in Taipei, and will soon be in Dubai. **The largest publicly traded company is in Beijing. **The biggest refinery is being constructed in India. **The largest passenger airplane is built in Europe. **The largest investment fund on the planet is in Abu Dhabi. **The biggest movie industry is Bollywood, not Hollywood. ** The largest Ferris wheel is in Singapore. **The largest casino is in Macao, which overtook Las Vegas in gambling revenues last year. **The Mall of America in Minnesota(once the largest in the world) now doesn't even make the top 10!! **In the most recent rankings, only two of the world's ten richest people are American. -AND we used to be numero-uno in each of those categories!!
Shit huh?? Well, we do still trump everyone with our military. On this point though people can have different views. Personally, I think we need our military might to keep being a power in the world(especially when one looks at how we rank globally in terms of education...terribly!). As Eisenhower was my fav president though, I agree with him that we should use a lot more of that money to build up ourselves domestically in an attempt to halt this decline into becoming the big dumb bully on the block. The rise of everyone else though is not really something to fear(unless we don't get environmental issues taken care of). Take our recent economic crisis-it was a good thing that other countries were strong and could help out and prevent the whole world from going down with us. America can remain strong if we continue to be open with our immigration policies.
For example: Foreign students and immigrants account for almost 50 percent of all science researchers in this country. In 2006 they received 40 percent of all PhDs. By 2010, 75 percent of all science PhDs in this country will be awarded to foreign students. When these graduates settle in the country, they create economic opportunity....but if they leave, they take that with them. Americas strength has always been our ability to remain open and flexible and absorb other people's cultures, languages, ideas, etc. We must not become overly nationalistic and close ourselves off to the rest of the world-our survival as a global power depends on it.
A few issues that do come up with the rise of the others is now they can be a little more tough with us. Take this for example: http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/china-warns-barack-obama-that-meeting-dalai-lama-would-hurt-relations/19341118 -If you're lazy and don't want to read it, basically China said Obama better not meet with the Dalai Lama or it may "hurt America's prospects of economic recovery." We also plan on selling Taiwan $6.4 billion in weapons-prompting China to threaten sanctions....China would not have dared this 10 years ago.
An important player then to pit against China becomes another rising giant-> India... if we do not continue to make the mistake of ignoring them to please Pakistan. If anything we should allow India to continue to build-up Afghanistan(as they have been attempting to do for years now)-even if this is to undermine and piss off the Pakistani government and their influence in Afghanistan.
Basically, it comes down to the fact that the American Empire is in decline. It is now for us to decide if we will embrace the rise of other countries as powerful global actors or will we try to fight it and get snuffed out?
**The world's tallest building is in Taipei, and will soon be in Dubai. **The largest publicly traded company is in Beijing. **The biggest refinery is being constructed in India. **The largest passenger airplane is built in Europe. **The largest investment fund on the planet is in Abu Dhabi. **The biggest movie industry is Bollywood, not Hollywood. ** The largest Ferris wheel is in Singapore. **The largest casino is in Macao, which overtook Las Vegas in gambling revenues last year. **The Mall of America in Minnesota(once the largest in the world) now doesn't even make the top 10!! **In the most recent rankings, only two of the world's ten richest people are American. -AND we used to be numero-uno in each of those categories!!
Shit huh?? Well, we do still trump everyone with our military. On this point though people can have different views. Personally, I think we need our military might to keep being a power in the world(especially when one looks at how we rank globally in terms of education...terribly!). As Eisenhower was my fav president though, I agree with him that we should use a lot more of that money to build up ourselves domestically in an attempt to halt this decline into becoming the big dumb bully on the block. The rise of everyone else though is not really something to fear(unless we don't get environmental issues taken care of). Take our recent economic crisis-it was a good thing that other countries were strong and could help out and prevent the whole world from going down with us. America can remain strong if we continue to be open with our immigration policies.
For example: Foreign students and immigrants account for almost 50 percent of all science researchers in this country. In 2006 they received 40 percent of all PhDs. By 2010, 75 percent of all science PhDs in this country will be awarded to foreign students. When these graduates settle in the country, they create economic opportunity....but if they leave, they take that with them. Americas strength has always been our ability to remain open and flexible and absorb other people's cultures, languages, ideas, etc. We must not become overly nationalistic and close ourselves off to the rest of the world-our survival as a global power depends on it.
A few issues that do come up with the rise of the others is now they can be a little more tough with us. Take this for example: http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/china-warns-barack-obama-that-meeting-dalai-lama-would-hurt-relations/19341118 -If you're lazy and don't want to read it, basically China said Obama better not meet with the Dalai Lama or it may "hurt America's prospects of economic recovery." We also plan on selling Taiwan $6.4 billion in weapons-prompting China to threaten sanctions....China would not have dared this 10 years ago.
An important player then to pit against China becomes another rising giant-> India... if we do not continue to make the mistake of ignoring them to please Pakistan. If anything we should allow India to continue to build-up Afghanistan(as they have been attempting to do for years now)-even if this is to undermine and piss off the Pakistani government and their influence in Afghanistan.
Basically, it comes down to the fact that the American Empire is in decline. It is now for us to decide if we will embrace the rise of other countries as powerful global actors or will we try to fight it and get snuffed out?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
