Why Liberals Must Embrace the Wars Against Terrorism

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Monday January 26, 2009 · 4:32 PM PST

2009/01/26 · 16:32

I'm sure this diary will be controversial in all the ways I don't intend it to be. But I think it's important these things be said.

The takeaway message of the piece comes near the conclusion:

Which is why as liberals, we must - both out of political necessity and good sense - embrace some version of a war against terrorism and come to terms with the threat from strategic terrorism - especially when coupled with weapons of mass destruction - to our way of life. We must build a society and a structure of laws that will withstand another attack. Or we will lose.

This piece was originally posted on my blog at 2parse.

***

Sun Tzu in The Art of War:

Hence the saying: If you know the enemy
and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a
hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy,
for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.
If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will
succumb in every battle.

theDamascus

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Tuesday January 06, 2009 · 6:41 AM PST

2009/01/06 · 06:41

This piece was originally published in a post on my blog, 2parse.

The War on Drugs is undermining America's War on Terror by:

creating an adversarial relationship with a large portion of the country;
calling into question the legitimacy of the rule of law and law enforcement;
competing for law enforcement resources; and
revealing the measures we take to track money being laundered and to stop smuggling.

The threat of terrorism is real, if often exaggerated for political purposes; and the consequences of a low probability, high impact attack could be catastrophic. If terrorism is our most immediate national security threat, then we must rearrange our priorities and end the failing Drug War.

theDamascus

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Saturday October 04, 2008 · 7:03 PM PDT

2008/10/04 · 19:03

This letter originally posted at my blog - but, I feel like John McCain would be more likely to read it here - because he clearly must read the Daily Kos, right?

John (may I call you John?):

I guess I was wrong about you planning a strategy of making Obama seem un-American after your last debate with him. Apparently you’ve decided to launch this attack now.

Sarah Palin said yesterday that Obama had disqualified himself from being commander-in-chief, and today that Obama was "palling around with terrorists" and was "not a man who sees America as you see America and as I see America."

It’s hard to see how she can escalate the rhetoric from here. She can call him a traitor. She can call him a terrorist. She can call him a Muslim. She can say he hates America.

theDamascus

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Tuesday April 15, 2008 · 11:01 AM PDT

2008/04/15 · 11:01

Previously posted over at my blog, this is a meditation on the power of story that focuses on how a slight change in emphasis in the story of 9/11 that we already know leads to radically different policy prescriptions.

We understand the world through story. Fables, parables, fairy tales, religious accounts, myths, campaign narratives, history. These stories contain - beyond characters, plot, and style - truths about how the world works.

The fable of the ant and the grasshopper demonstrates how hard work pays off in the end; through Little Red Riding Hood, we learn of the dangers of the forest and the world at large; with the story of Abraham and Isaac, we see demonstrated the radical nature of faith. The truths in these stories are often subtle things - allowing differing interpretations, competing lessons, contrasting understandings. But with each telling, the story offers something complete - some understanding about the world and an implied prescription or proscription.

theDamascus

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Sunday November 25, 2007 · 9:34 AM PST

2007/11/25 · 09:34

Adapted from my blog post of the same name.

The story of two men held by American forces shortly after 9/11. One, Abu Jandal, was interrogated by the FBI, treated with respect, and eventually not only confirmed that Al Qaeda had planned and executed the attacks on 9/11, but gave significant information that led to the destruction of much of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. The other, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi was among the first high value detainees captured after 9/11 and was tortured in an effort to learn more about Al Qaeda. He provided information that linked Iraq and Al Qaeda that later proved to be false.

A preemptive note: I believe that torture is immoral. I also believe, based on the statements of military and intelligence experts, that torture is ineffective as a means of gaining intelligence. The primary purpose of torture is to gain confessions, to break people - not to make them tell the truth. I believe it is both possible and important to make it clear that not only is torture wrong, but it is ineffective at attaining good intelligence.

theDamascus

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Tuesday November 20, 2007 · 7:28 PM PST

2007/11/20 · 19:28

An issue that has been raised repeatedly in the Democratic primary is that of "experience". Hillary Clinton is claiming she is the most experienced candidate and has repeatedly criticized her opponents - specifically Barack Obama - for not having enough experience. This was my initial reaction after I first heard Obama was running earlier this year as well. But as the campaign wore on, Obama won me over. I think similar arguments could be made for Paul, Kucinich, or others as well depending on your political positions. If you trust a candidate's judgment, then their experience is less important.

There are three main points that were made to change my mind.

History has shown that experience does not lead to better job performance in presidential politics.

Experience can be a proxy for good judgment, but it isn’t always.

No one is prepared to be president, and anyone who claims to be prepared is lying.

theDamascus

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Sunday November 18, 2007 · 3:26 PM PST

2007/11/18 · 15:26

I like Tom Friedman. Reading his column for the past seven or so years, I have come to believe that he’s a good guy and his column regularly provides genuine insight in a simplified format. Several years ago though, The New Republic perfectly spotted his weakness in a throwaway comment in a larger article* calling Friedman a salesman instead of analyst. It is true that his columns, while providing insights, are weak on analysis. Friedman’s strength is that he will start with a truly interesting concept that reveals something about the situation he is commenting on - but his weakness is that his analysis of that concept is poor, and often diluted by the kind of "pox-on-both-of-their-houses" journalism that in attempting to be objective, ends up creating a false middle ground.

This is precisely the problem with Friedman’s latest column which suggests that Barack Obama should keep Dick Cheney as Vice President.

theDamascus

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Friday November 16, 2007 · 1:33 PM PST

2007/11/16 · 13:33

I first published this on my blog this morning, but I thought it would be appreciated here.

In order to demonstrate a point I have made previously Vince Flynn has written a novel he has ironically titled Protect and Defend. Here a taste of what the novel is like from an exchange towards the end of chapter 45 during which the President of the United States, the Attorney General, and the hero Mitch Rapp are on a conference call in a crisis situation that perfectly illustrates my point:

"Mitch, [Attorney General] Pete Weber here. We all know you and [CIA Director] Irene are close but you really need to take a few steps back and remember that you took an oath, an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. We all took that oath and that means that none of us is above the law, including you."

There was a long pause and then in a voice filled with frustration Rapp said, "You have got to be kidding me!"

Poll

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Does the Bush administration believe

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Does the Bush administration believe

that the Constitution is no longer relevant

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The new war profiteers

theDamascus

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Sunday January 29, 2006 · 12:21 PM PST

2006/01/29 · 12:21

In every war, there are those unscrupulous businessmen--mere human leeches--who turn the misery and destruction of war into fat profit margins; this piece is not about them. In every significant political conflict, politicians and leaders of every stripe have become enflamed with emotion and, losing all perspective, made extremist claims about their domestic opponents; this piece is not about these figures.

That political debates often devolve into personal defamation is not news; and neither is the fact that every war allows the immoral to profit. However, in the past few years, a new innovation in illicit profiteering has emerged--specifically in the form of those politicians who seek to use war for political profit by smearing their domestic opponents as traitors to everything their country stands for. Read More

Politics as a Ballgame Without an Umpire

theDamascus

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Tuesday January 17, 2006 · 2:46 AM PST

2006/01/17 · 02:46

Kos wrote an interesting piece responding to Andrew Sullivan's charge that there are few things more valuable to GWB and the Religious Right than dKos. I understand where he is coming from--as Sullivan's charges as non-specific, broad, and immensely insulting.

But Kos's response, as well as many of the comments to his response, reveal the partial truth in Sullivan's point. (Please read on before you write a comment.) Sullivan is certainly blind to the value of a community like dKos--which manages to be an enormous fact-checking resource, a great place to organize political action, a place to vent, and a place to test political arguments. But much of the site's potential is obscured for anyone to the site's political right by the extremist rhetoric of so many diarists.

While many Americans may oppose Bush and much of the Republican agenda, they are basically happy with the way things are--as a character on West Wing said of the status quo: "It should be hard. I like that it's hard...But it should be a little easier." That is what people want--not radical change, but modest progress. Read More

"The time for this discussion is over."

theDamascus

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Friday July 15, 2005 · 3:32 PM PDT

2005/07/15 · 15:32

"This is war."

So wrote Armando in responding to my diary on the differences between the Religious Right and the Taliban/al Qaeda. He continued:

"We've thought about it alot more than you and don't agree with you at all. The time for this discussion is over."

Is this what we've come to? We've decided to become the mirror image of the very worst imagining of our opponents? "We've thought about it a lot more than you"!?!?! You don't know me! You have no idea who I am--and just because we disagree does not mean that you have thought about it more! Isn't this attempt to whip the troops into lockstep exactly what we say we hate about the Republican party? Paul Krugman today in the Times talked about how Republicans no longer care about the actual truth, only "political truth". Are we trying to follow their lead?
Read More

How Many dKos Users Mis-Understood Kos

theDamascus

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Thursday July 14, 2005 · 4:33 PM PDT

2005/07/14 · 16:33

In His Comparison of the "Dobson's of the Republican Party" and the Taliban/Al-Qaeda

I've been reading Kos since the blog was just him, before he signed on with the Dean campaign. Although a number of people have reacted very strongly against my bringing up positions that are out of the mainstream for this site, I'm not doing this to cause trouble--I want to participate in a debate. I am a progressive and a liberal. I want to try to understand why those people who disagree with me do so--that is the reason I am posting. I want to start a discussion. If you get angry, fine--but tell me why, and why my positions are so wrong. I want to hear it. I know a lot of people will do just that.

I wrote in a previous diary that many (though certainly not all) liberals (including quite a few on dKos) believe that the religious right in America is the equivalent of the Taliban and al Qaeda. In reality the differences between these Islamist extremists and either American liberals or conservatives is far greater than any differences between our American ideologies. Read More

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