The expansion of government power used to deal with the very real threat of al Qaeda and other terror groups were, eventually, turned on other Americans. And here we are.
This was a very thoughtful post and I have just learned of Mr Reaboi's writings. I don't think that it is possible to simply defeat radical Islam on the battlefield although we have to maintain an aggressive military posture. Instead, we have to discredit the hateful Islamic legal doctrines that sanction & promote violence against non-Muslims. Something like a religious Voice of America that would advocate for religious tolerance, freedom, & personal autonomy. But we are never going to bring this vision to reality in tribal, Islamic lands. Muslims have to reform their societies internally and it could take many more centuries.
I remember during the lead-up to the Iraq War the argument being made that the ideology of radical Islam *was* at the root of this, so we had to view this as a fight against an ideology, not a fight against an actual nation/political entity. It was just like the Cold War where the ideology was at the root of the fight. So just like the Cold War, we had to defeat the ideology by setting up and maintaining "hegemony" in a few places in the Mideast which would then influence the whole region to repudiate radical Islam in favor of more liberal political values. In other words, a soon-to-be-liberated-Iraq was to function like West Germany did. FWIW I was just a college student at the time, but way more plugged into politics than most folks my age, and I recall finding this a very convincing argument for supporting the war
Obviously things didn't work out this way. I wonder how much of the mistakes made in the early years of the War on Terror are rooted in the view that this would be analogous to the Cold War
I now have so many conflicting attitudes toward what has happened since 9-11. David Reaboi thank you for outlining what is a conflicted topic to many of us that witnessed it for ourselves. Nothing is black and white, and you cannot revise history to fit current events.
Thanks for such a thoughtful and insightful post. I agree with most of it and comfortably part company with most Trump supporters who now believe the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were a waste.
I parse it a bit differently though. I believe if we went in to help those nations set up constitutional republics with democratically elected politicians, I am comfortable with that.
But if we went in so Monsanto could take agriculture over from fifty million more people, then, no. I do not support that.
I read that farmers using traditional agricultural methods were locked up as terrorists when they refused to use Monsantos seeds.
This type of intervention is what the left has correctly been hollaring about for a hundred years as the Wars have played out.
This was a very thoughtful post and I have just learned of Mr Reaboi's writings. I don't think that it is possible to simply defeat radical Islam on the battlefield although we have to maintain an aggressive military posture. Instead, we have to discredit the hateful Islamic legal doctrines that sanction & promote violence against non-Muslims. Something like a religious Voice of America that would advocate for religious tolerance, freedom, & personal autonomy. But we are never going to bring this vision to reality in tribal, Islamic lands. Muslims have to reform their societies internally and it could take many more centuries.
I remember during the lead-up to the Iraq War the argument being made that the ideology of radical Islam *was* at the root of this, so we had to view this as a fight against an ideology, not a fight against an actual nation/political entity. It was just like the Cold War where the ideology was at the root of the fight. So just like the Cold War, we had to defeat the ideology by setting up and maintaining "hegemony" in a few places in the Mideast which would then influence the whole region to repudiate radical Islam in favor of more liberal political values. In other words, a soon-to-be-liberated-Iraq was to function like West Germany did. FWIW I was just a college student at the time, but way more plugged into politics than most folks my age, and I recall finding this a very convincing argument for supporting the war
Obviously things didn't work out this way. I wonder how much of the mistakes made in the early years of the War on Terror are rooted in the view that this would be analogous to the Cold War
I now have so many conflicting attitudes toward what has happened since 9-11. David Reaboi thank you for outlining what is a conflicted topic to many of us that witnessed it for ourselves. Nothing is black and white, and you cannot revise history to fit current events.
Thanks for such a thoughtful and insightful post. I agree with most of it and comfortably part company with most Trump supporters who now believe the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were a waste.
I parse it a bit differently though. I believe if we went in to help those nations set up constitutional republics with democratically elected politicians, I am comfortable with that.
But if we went in so Monsanto could take agriculture over from fifty million more people, then, no. I do not support that.
I read that farmers using traditional agricultural methods were locked up as terrorists when they refused to use Monsantos seeds.
This type of intervention is what the left has correctly been hollaring about for a hundred years as the Wars have played out.
Cheers!
Jenny Marie Hatch