LET'S GET REAL HERE.......

Submitted by JACK THACKARY (United States), Mar 8, 2009 at 09:52

As with our former 'Boogey Man,' Communism, we Americans have become obsessed with our perceived enemy to the point where we have elevated him [in this case al Queda, the Taliban and Islamic fanatics in general] into an almost exalted position of potential menace. The Soviet Union turned out to be a paper tiger that collapsed of its own dead weight and internal corruption. We now scratch our heads and wonder, 'what was all the fuss about?'

I believe that we have similarly over-estimated the threat of radical Islam. Now before I go any further, lest there be some perception that I am in any way a devotee or admirer of Islam, let me say straight out that I believe Islam to be a rather bizarre cult with some extremely noxious components to its belief system. Any religion that promotes death by stoning and 'honor killings' of female family members has some answering to do on the moral playing field of humanity. But really, doesn't this just illustrate what a backward group of cultural misfits that radical Muslims really are? We are a nation that---with the help of England, Russia, Canada and Australia---took on the duel menace of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan simultaneously and kicked their collective butts all the way back to Munich and Tokyo. And we now fear we might "lose the war" against a motley crew of Islamic dirtbags who, if left to their own devices, couldn't even create the very weapons they use against us? [guns, explosives---none of these were invented by Muslims----dito for the nuclear weapons they crave.]

Now I am aware that they were able to sucker punch us good and hard back on Sept. 11, 2001 and I am aware that they have pulled off a few more obnoxious attacks upon civilian populations in places like London and Madrid since then. But this fear of terrorism has also been utilized by our own leaders as a convenient political tool to justify virtually any expedient action they desire anywhere in the world in the name of 'fighting terrorism,' up to and including invading a foreign country to look for imaginary weapons of mass destruction.

No less an expert on social manipulation than the late Hermann Goering, Hitler's right hand man, told the world at Nuremberg that controlling a civilian population was very simple, 'all you have to do is convince them that they are being attacked.' [semi-quotes used because I do not recall the precise wording] I believe that the "war on terror" has evolved into a convenient distraction from other more pressing issues, like the impending bankruptcy of our own federal government if no effort is made to curb the profligate spending now going on. As David Walker, former Comptroller-General of the United States, has pointed out, our government currently has fiscal obligations into the next quarter century totalling 55 trillion dollars and that, in his own words, "zero, zip, zilch" has been put aside to pay for it. This is a looming crisis that could hurt us a thousand times more than al Queda ever could.

Now I don't pretend to know just how successful our recently elected president will be in dealing with either the terrorist problem or the fiscal crisis we now face. But I do know that we cannot go on indefintely fighting wars against a vague, nearly invisible enemy in places like the Tora Bora Mountains of Afghanistan. And we can't go on indefinitely propping up our own economy by borrowing trillions of dollars from Communist China [of all places!] and pretending that we have a thriving economic system.

Obama told us that it's time for a change. That means a change of policy on a lot of issues. Who could possibly argue with that? Can he produce that change? I don't know, but he's our best hope at the moment and let's give him and his team a chance to show what they can do.

And let's stop looking for turban-headed terrorists under our beds. We couldn't find any Communists there either, remember, and now we borrow money from the Commies in China to prop up our own faltering capitalist economy. Funny how things turn out, isn't it?

- JACK THACKARY

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