Back to Black

We have ceased to be a nation under law
but instead a homeland where the withered Bill of Rights,
like a dead trumpet vine,
clings to our pseudo-Roman columns
--Gore Vidal
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Religious holidays always hearken Ranger back to his formative years. Since realizing that God does not talk to me on a regular or even intermittent basis, Ranger has long-rejected George W. Bush's position that God's will favors the U.S. policy of indiscriminate forced democratization throughout the oil-rich areas of the globe.

That is the crux of his unease with those who would claim a mandate to impose their convictions anywhere. Proselytizing is the realm of the church, not the government. Ranger prefers to keep all discussions on matters of national policy on the temporal plane, and hopes the future president du jour does the same, reflecting the will of the people versus that of the divine father.

The minister-architects of the Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©) would have us believe that a non-democratic country is de facto evil, in the words of the Good Book. If evil, then terrorist, with the only solution being a righteous smelting until the good is rendered out, ergo, pure democracy. The simplicity is almost elegant: "evil" is good which has been corrupted. Knock off the wayward add-ons, and you are back to good (=democracy).

When democracy triumphs terrorism is defeated and ceases to exist. Wham-bam-thank you, ma'am. However, it is possible that life goes the other way. That the tendency is to rumble, and hate and distrust (hard to imagine, eh?) That in fact, democracy is the unusual impulse, the one which is added on. That instead of being pure, it is the alloy.

Terrorism is an outgrowth of democracy. There were no terrorists in Nazi Germany, but there were in the Federal Republic of Germany. Same for Italy of WWII vs. the democratic Italy of the 70's and 80's. There is no terrorism in China, nor was there in the Soviet Union. The only terrorism in Iran and Cuba is/was sponsored by the Central Intelligence Agency. There is no terrorism in North Korea.

The GWOT is not and can not be a war to oppose totalitarian authority. The U.S. military and economic machines do not possess the resources nor the resolve to achieve this goal. That is, unless China will lend us the money to combat the Chinese totalitarian state. So what are we fighting for?

Terrorism can only exist in a free and open society. If the U.S. wants to defeat terrorism, then adopting the tactics of dictators is the key to success.

Is this really a war that the U.S. can afford to fight, or one that we should want to win?