Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly.
He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
19 Comments
on March 25, 2007 at 4:11 am
Brzezinski concludes his Wash Post op-ed:
Where is the U.S. leader ready to say, “Enough of this hysteria, stop this paranoia”? Even in the face of future terrorist attacks, the likelihood of which cannot be denied, let us show some sense. Let us be true to our traditions.
Zbigniew Brzezinski was born in Warsaw in 1928. In 1938, his father, a diplomat, was posted to Canada. Zbig’s family was stuck in Canada from there on in, because of the German invasion of Poland. Zbig entered McGill University in Montreal in 1945.
Why is it that, in order to find someone who is capable of speaking of “our traditions”, the Washington Post needs to rely upon a Pole who was educated in Canada? Why are there no longer U.S.-born academics that can be relied upon to speak of “our traditions”?
Food for thought. I guess the reason is that the only prominent U.S.-born American academics that were critical of the “war on terror” from the very start are radicals like Chomsky. The native-born non-radicals are just too good at getting with the program.
Susan Sontag, too. Let’s remember her. She was trashed and trashed, mercilessly, by people like veteran war supporter Andrew Sullivan, when she warned shortly after the events of September 11, 2001 in Washington and New York that the administration would do exactly what is stated at the conclusion of this colum: create fear, nourish Fear, increase FEAR! Endless war, too.
He was on with Jon Stewart. It was a good interview, and he basically said the same thing. I can’t help but wonder why common sense is such a rare commodity. Brzezinski’s point is self-evident. No WMDs was self-evident. How dumb is this country?
Dr Michael Noll’s students at Valdosta are as smart and bright-eyed as Dr El-Baradei’s in Cairo. They packed into the same lecture I had given in Egypt and seemed to share a lot of the same fears about Iraq. But a sullen seminar that same morning was a miserable affair in which a young woman seemed to break down in anger. If “we” left Iraq, she said in a quavering voice, the jihadists, the “terrorists”, could come here to America. They would attack us right here.
I sighed with frustration. I was listening to her voice but it was also the voice of the woman on Fox TV, the repeated, hopeless fantasy of Bush and Blair: that if we fail in Iraq, “they”, the monstrous enemy, will arrive on our shores. Every day in the American papers now, I read the same “fear” transformed into irrationality. Luke Boggs – God, how I’d love that byline – announces in his local paper: “I say let the terrorists rot in Guantanamo. And let the Europeans … howl. We are a serious nation, engaged in the serious business of trying to kill or capture the bad guys before they can do us more harm.” He calls Guantanamo’s inmates “hardcore jihadists”.
And I realise that the girl in Dr Noll’s seminar isn’t spouting this stuff about “jihadists” travelling from Iraq to America because she supports Bush. She is just frightened. She is genuinely afraid of all the “terror” warnings, the supposed “jihadists” threats, the red “terror” alerts and the purple alerts and all the other colour-coded instruments of fear. She believes her president, and her president has done Osama bin Laden’s job for him: he has crushed this young woman’s spirit and courage.
But America is not at war. There are no electricity cuts on Valdosta’s warm green campus, with its Spanish style department blocks and its narrow, beautiful church. There is no food rationing. There are no air-raid shelters or bombs or “jihadists” stalking these God-fearing folk. It is the US military that is at war, engaged in an Iraqi conflict that is doing damage of a far more subtle kind to America’s social fabric.
An amazing commentary–putting in one place the many observations that most on these sites have been saying for many years. But who will read it? The Republicans have relegated Carter and his (fine) administrators to “historic irrelevance” through years of propaganda.
As the US makes less “stuff” we need to invent businesses to keep people employed. This has led to the rise of all sorts of unnecessary services.
The security industry is a good example. All the guards in lobbies, all the firms installing security cameras and concrete barriers, all the security “experts” offering advice generate economic activity.
Most politicians (privately) acknowledge that a large part of our military spending is to provide economic stimulus, we can expect the same rationale to be offered in the future when people start getting tired of being imposed upon.
What made Giuliani a security expert? He’s the guy who designed a crisis center and put it in the midst of a place already known to be a target. His business success is not based upon expertise, but on the ability to short circuit criticism of unwise expenditures by firms who cite his recommendations.
One of the reasons US firms are uncompetitive is that they spend much of their money on unproductive services. The number of middlemen continues to expand, the number of people who actually make something declines.
Fear obscures reason, intensifies emotions and makes it easier for demagogic politicians to mobilize the public on behalf of the policies they want to pursue.
Add the sheeple, bake at 350 for an hour, and you have a recipe for the last 7 years. Serve while warm. Serves 300 million.
I couldn’t help but be reminded of why I am not a Republican: I don’t scare easy, and I find hatred to be a waste of energy.
I wish some clever leftist politician would put a prettier wrapper on the basic fact that conservatism is the natural political reflex of the chickenshit. The mind-boggling cowardice of all these Republicans who are afraid of terrorism really should be a source of personal shame for them, and national shame that we have such cowards in such huge numbers in our populace.
the basic fact that conservatism is the natural political reflex of the chickenshit.
Thanks. This phrase was worth the price of amdission for today.
The quintessential problem of politics and governing in a democracy is to have a citizenry that is both engaged and courageous. Unfortunately ours is neither, the perfect breeding ground for conservatism.
The dirty not-so-secret secret of the last 30 years is that this result is the direct result of Republican strategy.
Oh yes, be afraid be very afraid…afraid of two men or women kissing, be afraid of women having say over their own bodies, afraid of those nasty ‘illegals’, be afraid of all those other brown skinned people, be very afraid those dastardly secular humanists, be very very afraid of people with tatoos and green hair, be very afraid of those Dixie Chick gals, afraid of those damn anti-war peace protesters, afraid of Michael Moore, Al Gore and Tipper too, afraid of electric cars….how do people live their lives afraid of everything I wonder?
Gee, it’s almost like Zbig has finally got around to reading what’s been in the Booman Tribune for the last several years. Zbig, as great as this article is, what the hell took you so long?
Zbig has, in fact, been making these lucid statements -at least the ones I’ve heard – for nearly as long as this invasion/occupation has been underway.
So he’s not coming late to the “party” on this topic.
I think, like in the case, for different reasons, with Hagel, we need to keep our minds open to the realpolitico Brzezinski has been (brilliant though he is). He is a strategist – the world is a chessboard for him – and as such it requires constant gamesmanship – there are kings, queens and pawns. What I’m trying to say is that his kind of of administrative leadership is not entirely benign. There are consequences to the kind of intervention we expose ourselves and the world to.
But without a doubt he is totally right on the matter of the war on terror and those in our government (think tanks included) who spread this vile fear for world dominance.
Fear and it’s baby the color code system. After five years the threat level has never gone below yellow..remember when W would move it up when ever he was in trouble.
Where is the U.S. leader ready to say, “Enough of this hysteria, stop this paranoia”? Even in the face of future terrorist attacks, the likelihood of which cannot be denied, let us show some sense. Let us be true to our traditions.
Where indeed?
Is there a single candidate who is not afraid to face the fear down? (Okay, Clark, but he isn’t running — yet).
The only thing that comes close, while not addressing our fear, John Edwards does talk about the root cause of societies that create the breeding grounds for terrorism — poverty. Something clicked for me when he talked about combatting world poverty as a national security issue here at home.
Where is the U.S. leader ready to say, “Enough of this hysteria, stop this paranoia”? Even in the face of future terrorist attacks, the likelihood of which cannot be denied, let us show some sense. Let us be true to our traditions.
Brzezinski concludes his Wash Post op-ed:
Zbigniew Brzezinski was born in Warsaw in 1928. In 1938, his father, a diplomat, was posted to Canada. Zbig’s family was stuck in Canada from there on in, because of the German invasion of Poland. Zbig entered McGill University in Montreal in 1945.
Why is it that, in order to find someone who is capable of speaking of “our traditions”, the Washington Post needs to rely upon a Pole who was educated in Canada? Why are there no longer U.S.-born academics that can be relied upon to speak of “our traditions”?
Food for thought. I guess the reason is that the only prominent U.S.-born American academics that were critical of the “war on terror” from the very start are radicals like Chomsky. The native-born non-radicals are just too good at getting with the program.
Susan Sontag, too. Let’s remember her. She was trashed and trashed, mercilessly, by people like veteran war supporter Andrew Sullivan, when she warned shortly after the events of September 11, 2001 in Washington and New York that the administration would do exactly what is stated at the conclusion of this colum: create fear, nourish Fear, increase FEAR! Endless war, too.
He was on with Jon Stewart. It was a good interview, and he basically said the same thing. I can’t help but wonder why common sense is such a rare commodity. Brzezinski’s point is self-evident. No WMDs was self-evident. How dumb is this country?
Robert Fisk has a good paper on the same topic:
Robert Fisk: The crushing fear that stalks America – Independent Online Edition > Robert Fisk
Her are some excerpts:
If I was given a choice of only being able to follow one reporters articles Robert Fisk would win hands down for me.
An amazing commentary–putting in one place the many observations that most on these sites have been saying for many years. But who will read it? The Republicans have relegated Carter and his (fine) administrators to “historic irrelevance” through years of propaganda.
It needs to picked up by MSM. How?
ZB needs to be brought back into the next Democratic government, for our sake, but also the sake of world peace.
To stop the fear induction by the “war on Terrorism” advocates, just put duct tape over everyone’s ears!
As the US makes less “stuff” we need to invent businesses to keep people employed. This has led to the rise of all sorts of unnecessary services.
The security industry is a good example. All the guards in lobbies, all the firms installing security cameras and concrete barriers, all the security “experts” offering advice generate economic activity.
Most politicians (privately) acknowledge that a large part of our military spending is to provide economic stimulus, we can expect the same rationale to be offered in the future when people start getting tired of being imposed upon.
What made Giuliani a security expert? He’s the guy who designed a crisis center and put it in the midst of a place already known to be a target. His business success is not based upon expertise, but on the ability to short circuit criticism of unwise expenditures by firms who cite his recommendations.
One of the reasons US firms are uncompetitive is that they spend much of their money on unproductive services. The number of middlemen continues to expand, the number of people who actually make something declines.
Bush agenda reduced to a single sentence.
Add the sheeple, bake at 350 for an hour, and you have a recipe for the last 7 years. Serve while warm. Serves 300 million.
I couldn’t help but be reminded of why I am not a Republican: I don’t scare easy, and I find hatred to be a waste of energy.
I wish some clever leftist politician would put a prettier wrapper on the basic fact that conservatism is the natural political reflex of the chickenshit. The mind-boggling cowardice of all these Republicans who are afraid of terrorism really should be a source of personal shame for them, and national shame that we have such cowards in such huge numbers in our populace.
Thanks. This phrase was worth the price of amdission for today.
The quintessential problem of politics and governing in a democracy is to have a citizenry that is both engaged and courageous. Unfortunately ours is neither, the perfect breeding ground for conservatism.
The dirty not-so-secret secret of the last 30 years is that this result is the direct result of Republican strategy.
Oh yes, be afraid be very afraid…afraid of two men or women kissing, be afraid of women having say over their own bodies, afraid of those nasty ‘illegals’, be afraid of all those other brown skinned people, be very afraid those dastardly secular humanists, be very very afraid of people with tatoos and green hair, be very afraid of those Dixie Chick gals, afraid of those damn anti-war peace protesters, afraid of Michael Moore, Al Gore and Tipper too, afraid of electric cars….how do people live their lives afraid of everything I wonder?
Gee, it’s almost like Zbig has finally got around to reading what’s been in the Booman Tribune for the last several years. Zbig, as great as this article is, what the hell took you so long?
YES.
Zbig has, in fact, been making these lucid statements -at least the ones I’ve heard – for nearly as long as this invasion/occupation has been underway.
So he’s not coming late to the “party” on this topic.
I think, like in the case, for different reasons, with Hagel, we need to keep our minds open to the realpolitico Brzezinski has been (brilliant though he is). He is a strategist – the world is a chessboard for him – and as such it requires constant gamesmanship – there are kings, queens and pawns. What I’m trying to say is that his kind of of administrative leadership is not entirely benign. There are consequences to the kind of intervention we expose ourselves and the world to.
But without a doubt he is totally right on the matter of the war on terror and those in our government (think tanks included) who spread this vile fear for world dominance.
Fear and it’s baby the color code system. After five years the threat level has never gone below yellow..remember when W would move it up when ever he was in trouble.
http://www.dhs.gov/xinfoshare/programs/Copy_of_press_release_0046.shtm
Where indeed?
Is there a single candidate who is not afraid to face the fear down? (Okay, Clark, but he isn’t running — yet).
The only thing that comes close, while not addressing our fear, John Edwards does talk about the root cause of societies that create the breeding grounds for terrorism — poverty. Something clicked for me when he talked about combatting world poverty as a national security issue here at home.