The Zone

[Dan Jizzenberry]

Yes, I didn't just pull this out of my ass. Bush and much of his cabinet (not to mention numerous Congressmen and all the mealy-mouthed pundits who populate the nation's airwaves) have been talking in absolute terms since last Tuesday. Terms such as "wipe out", "rid the world", and "eradicate" have been thrown around liberally, as if we should be led to believe that terrorism will cease to be a problem when this war ends. Now, whether they believe their own rhetoric is another matter altogether. I hope they don't, I really do. But there are many historical precedents (Vietnam being the most recent) which illustrate why this kind of optimism may be taken seriously among both the populace and the government. However, Mark Harris is right when he points out that the government has been taking it very slowly--they haven't even said that Bin Laden is actually responsible for last Tuesday's attacks, referring to him only as the "prime suspect"--but the words that often emerge from our leader's little pursed mouth tell another story. I hear lots of frontier terminology: "wanted dead or alive", "smokin' 'em out", and "huntin' 'em down". In other words, this is not a "straw dog" argument (I think you mean straw man, but maybe this is a colloquial version of the same turn of phrase). I just hope that Bush and co. are talking tough but acting reasonable; I hope that they don't conflate word and deed. Otherwise, you can expect a long, drawn out war that--and maybe I'm just being pessimistic here--will be effective in the short-term but dreadful in the long-term. And "make no mistake"--to quote Bush again--I am in favor of some sort of military action; I'll only declare my pacificism in front of a draft committee. But if the American government truly thinks that it can rid the world of terrorism, I fear for the worst. Again, this is just speculation but I don't think my ideas can be so easily dismissed. I would also point out that a hallmark of democracy (ideally, although I know this terminology is decidedly passe right now) is an effot to maintain an informed populace. And I don't think this is being attempted by the government, CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, etc. Check out CBS's website and look up the link that puports to reveal why these terrorists hate America so much. The best a Harvard trained professor of International Affairs can offer is that many people hate America because of its prosperity and its modernity (just like the Scheer article posted earlier). But what few commentators have mentioned (an excellent documentary on Frontline being an exception---ahh PBS, where would we be without your luke-warm, yet non-threatening, leftism?) is that Osama Bin Laden's PRIMARY demand is that American troops be removed from Saudi Arabia, from the site of the two holiest landmarks of Islam. All the public statements released by him and his organization make this perfectly clear. Other motivating factors, such as hatred of modernity, hatred of Israel (which gets less attention by Bin Laden than many people assume), are important but still secondary. Fortunately, I've heard that books on Islam, including many of Said's texts, have been flying off the shelves lately. It's sad, though, when knowledge of this type must be left to the autodidact.   

----- Original Message -----
From: Mark Wright AIA
Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2001 6:58 PM
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Subject: Re: The Zone

Howdy

--- David Morris <fqmorris at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> >From: "Dan" ...does anyone ... believe that this new war of ours
will > >wipe terrorism off the face of the planet? [...]
>
> Who is setting this goal as the standard besides you?  This is a very
> obvious straw dog.

Not to take Jizzenberry's side in this, I'd like to point out that,
unfortunately, our George II's language encourages his wild
interpretation.  Bush's foolish sounding utterance, quoted in all the
papers yesterday: "We will rid the world of these evil-doers."

Reagan drew his world-view and rhetoric from the movies.  Bush seems to
take his from comic books. Who elected this guy??

Mark

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