NP? naive v realistic

[Doug Millison]

"[...] So to be realistic means to believe that bombing one of the poorest
nations on Earth will not only reduce terrorism, but also fail to ignite a
new round of anti-American fanaticism. To be naïve, on the other hand, is
to pay attention to modern history, which tells us in no uncertain terms
that bombing people is rather likely to fuel their anger, resentment, and
desire for revenge.

To be realistic is to think that pummeling one nation--in this case
Afghanistan--will have some appreciable effect on the thugs in al-Qaeda,
despite the fact that the group operates in sixty-four countries including
many allies whom we have no intention of bombing. To be naive is to point
out that terrorists aren't reliant on one, or even several countries to
operate, and as such, we could eradicate every member of the Taliban
tomorrow without delaying by so much as a day any future attacks on our
shores.

To be realistic is to believe our government officials when they insist
they have proof of bin Laden's involvement in the 9/11 attacks. To be naive
is to wonder how an intelligence community that completely missed the signs
of impending disaster, could be so sure, so soon, of who did this thing
that they had no idea was coming in the first place.

To be really naïve, I guess, would be to think that perhaps they might be
lying. Forget that that's exactly what they did so as to justify bombing
Quadafi, and what they did when the CIA announced that armed Libyans were
roaming the streets of America, planning to assassinate Ronald Reagan. And
it's what they did when they claimed the Soviets were building a military
base in Grenada, or that the Sandinistas in Nicaragua were running drugs
(actually it was our guys, the contras, who were doing that). And apropos
of today's headlines, it's what they did when they decided to dub a certain
band of fundamentalist thugs known as the Mujahadeen, "freedom fighters."
[...]

To be realistic is to insist that nations harboring terrorists must be
brought to justice. To be naive is to note that a) we aren't really serious
about that--after all, many nations that do so are coalition partners in
the war on Afghanistan; and b) by that standard, any number of nations
would have the right to attack us. After all, we have harbored and even
taught terrorists and death squad leaders at the School of the Americas at
Fort Benning, Georgia. We have harbored known Cuban terrorists in Miami. We
even gave a tax exemption for several years to a neo-Nazi "church"
affiliated with the National Alliance, whose leader has called for
worldwide racial cleansing, whose words are credited with inspiring Timothy
McVeigh, and whose members have committed bombings, murders and armed
robberies across the country. [...]

Again, maybe it's just me. Or maybe it's 1984, and War Is Peace, and
Slavery Is Freedom, and Ignorance Is Strength. Or maybe all that is just
bullshit, being served up on a silver platter, while the servers tell us
it's really Goose Liver Pate. It reminds me of something my Grandma once
said: "You can call your ass a turkey, but that doesn't make it
Thanksgiving." Likewise, you can call your war just, and the rest of us
naive, but that won't make it so.

Tim Wise is a writer, activist and antiracism educator. He can be reached
at tjwise at mindspring.com "
http://www.zmag.org/wisenaive.htm


[I encourage readers to click on the enclosed urls and read excerpted
articles in their entirety, monitor a broad spectrum of information
sources, and use their brains to integrate their own understanding of the
post-911 Situation.]