One reason that the Bush administration lost the United States a lot of its prestige and respect, is that they did not respect even the forms of US tradition when it comes to military aggression. He invented a false causus belli and should have been caught on it. This was "war on pretext" and is also "war as campaign of lies." The US cannot afford to fight such wars because we are in a world where we are indeed struggling against ideology, and 80% of that struggle is in the press and the flow of public opinions. By launching a war of naked aggression on flimsy pretext, Bush stripped his arguments of what otherwise might have been legitimacy. He made us seem no better than the Iraqis and the Iranians.
The result was as I mentioned in a previous post, Bush became like the "Boy who cried wolf." He cried wolf when there was no wolf, so who is going to believe him when there is a wolf? More-over this "wolf" can't be effectively fought by buying into its arguments. Doing what the Islamo-fascists and Arab Street expect us to do just reinforces the position of the Islamo-fascists in the Arab (and Iranian, Indonesian and Pakistani) street. But at the same time we can't be naive about what is really going on.
We have a genuine and long term enemy. We just can't use the presence of that enemy to undermine our own principles of democracy, freedom, and liberty and Justice.
The President would do this in the name of "freedom" because he represents a new wind of Conservative-Authoritarians, whose goals aren't that much different from the Islamo-Fascists. The target of the Islamo-Fascists is the subjugation of the world by Islam. The target of the neo-Conservative-Authoritarians is the subjugation of the country to the moral strictures of their notion of Christianity. In both cases ideas like Dialogue, Compromise, or even common sense play no part. Both groups love this fight because it gives them free-play with their own people. If there is war between Christianity and Islam than it is perfectly acceptable to do just about anything in the name of that war and to suppress "liberals," Women, gays, big-mouths, and other "traitors" in the process. The war on terrorism has been an excuse to produce societies with the forms of Democracy -- and no democracy.
The war on Iraq was launched, obviously, for other reasons, and the stated reasons were "pretext." Likewise the war against Israel, the United States, and the West is based on "pretext." If Israel gave into every Islamic demand, for the core, there would still be war. If the United States pulls out of Iraq, there would still be war. Other pretexts would be found. That is how fascism works. In a Fascist state the goal is complete dominion, uniformity and conformity. There is no room for Jews, minorities, or "peaceful co-existence" unless this state is accepted. Compromise on a subject is seen as a victory and a pretext for more demands.
Countries like Egypt and Pakistan already have the foundations of fascism in place. They are not democracies, and they don't have the tools for democracy in place and those tools are not being nurtured. Instead Islamo-fascism is being nurtured by the very means used to fight it. All forms of Fascism breed on injustice, fear, and envy. Fascist methods only breed more fascism. Hezbollah might become less fascist if its leadership so determines, but mere participation in democracy will not make it a democratic movement. For that to happen the people have to see the value of compromise, respect for differences, and pluralism. They have to be open to new things. Do you see that happening?
Fascist regimes have transitioned to Democracy. A good example is Spain, an ugly example is Argentina. There is hope that fascism can be reversed. The key is that fascist leadership inevitably has a kleptocratic side, they inevitably so enjoy their power they act as thieves. Eventually this leads to self-destruction. But that takes a while to rear its face. These leaders know how to use marketing and propaganda to hide their true faces. As long as they present an alternative to corrupt, moribund governments, they will seem a viable alternative. People vote for groups like Hamas and Hezbollah out of desperation.
Chris
Posted by cholte at August 22, 2006 06:37 AM