For a change, I agree with Roger Cohen, a frequent op-ed contibutor at the New York Times. Bush out and Obama in has radically changed the way America will approach the problem of terrorism. And that is a good thing. No more grandiose talk from the White House that proclaims “you are either with us or against us” or “bring them on” or comparisons of the certain Middle Eastern countries with the threat Nazi Germany posed before it started WWII. The time for such bombast, for speaking of “crusades” is over. The “War on Terror” was always simply a moronic rhetorical device to provide cover for the illegal and unsound military adventures the Bush administration pursued for reasons that had little to do with combating Al Qaeda. It polarized Americans, and it inflamed the passion of hatred among millions of people, Muslims and Christians and Jews and anyone else who bought into its simplistic Manichean vision of the world following the 9/11 attacks.
Thank God or the Flying Spaghetti Monster that not only does Obama recognize this fact, he has actually taken the first steps to dismantling the crude, ineffective and murderous militaristic policies the Bush administration implemented which led to so much unnecessary death and destruction, and the great cost to our country, not only in terms of dollars wasted, but in lives ruined and civil liberties trampled and human rights disregarded. I’ll let Mr. Cohen explain what the difference an Obama in the Presidency makes:
(cont.)
Yes, the with-us-or-against-us global struggle — the so-called Long War — in which a freedom-loving West confronts the undifferentiated forces of darkness comprising everything from Al Qaeda to elements of the Palestinian national struggle under the banner of “Islamofascism” has been terminated.
What’s left is what matters: defeating terrorist organizations. That’s not a war. It’s a strategic challenge. […]
[Obama’s] tone [in his interview with the Al Arabiya network] represented a startling departure. He was subtle, respectful, self-critical and balanced where the Bush administration had been blunt, offensive, bombastic and one-sided in its embrace of an Israel-can-do-no-wrong policy.
Speaking as his Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, began an eight-day visit to the region, Obama described the mission as one of listening “because all too often the United States starts by dictating.”
Obama went further. Citing Muslim members of his own family and his experience of life in a Muslim country (Indonesia), he repositioned the national interest and his own role.
He defined his task as convincing Muslims that “Americans are not your enemy” and persuading Americans that respect for a Muslim world is essential. His objective, he said, was to promote not only American interests but those of ordinary people — read Muslims — suffering from “poverty and a lack of opportunity.”
The new president’s abandonment of post-9/11 Bush doctrine is a critical breakthrough. It resolves nothing but opens the way for a rapprochement with a Muslim world long cast into the “against-us” camp. Nothing good in Israel-Palestine, Afghanistan or Iran could happen with that Manichean chasm.
Now comes the hard part: following through. There are still many here in America, and even among members of his own party who see the struggle with terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda as a steel cage death match between the forces of good (i.e. the West) and the forces of evil (i.e. the Muslim world). There are still too many people in and out of the military who think that more bombs and bullets and predator drone missiles is the only way to proceed, the only path to “victory” (though even they can’t define what victory might mean). We may mock them as “dead-enders” but the truth is that the represent a sizable minority in America, and their views are well and over represented in the American media.
It is no easy task for Obama to walk back from using the US military as our nation’s only option to terrorism and seeing that in the future diplomacy, the “jaw jaw” which Winston Churchill once lauded, is the superior approach. The Bush wars have caused untold strife in so many ways, but their worst legacy is the creation of a generation of Muslims who view America as their mortal enemy thanks to Iraq, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, torture, White phosphorus, Blackwater mercs, etc., etc., etc. President Obama’s action to reach out to the Muslim world was not only the intelligent thing to do, but it was the right thing as well. However, it is only a beginning. The time for the peacemakers has come. Let us hope President obama has the strength, the vision and the courage to follow through on his commitment to diplomacy and negotiations despite the inevitable setbacks to such an approach that the future will undoubtedly bring.
