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Published on Tuesday, December 29, 2009 by FireDogLake.com
Terrorists are Not Supermen: Ackerman Takes on Buchanan, Engel on Morning Joe
This was fun. Thanks to MSNBC for the invite, and to the Morning Joe guest hosts for such a long and, I thought, substantive segment. My one regret is that my makeup doesn’t make me look as orange as a Jersey Shore cast member.
Also, I thought Richard Engel did a very good job of arguing for a purely counterterrorism approach to al-Qaeda. I hope I was coherent in my “demand-side security” response.
© 2009 FireDogLake
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16 Comments so far
Show AllAre Terrorism acts criminal activity , or acts of war???
This is the intellectual question of the decade.
Becasue if every country in the world has one Terrorist living there, then by definition of "War on Terrorism" we are at war with the whole world.
Can thier be a more insane policy, than being at war with the world.
And when will we be attacked here at homw by our own military, if they decide to attack home grown terrorists.
Honestly, we need a specialized global police force whose sole job is to hunt down and jail terrorists, not war.
But we are not smart enough for that conclusion, and it does not fuel the military industrial complex, or put money in bankers hands.
All things good and evil are in the hands of bankers, follow the money trails.
"Honestly, we need a specialized global police force whose sole job is to hunt down and jail terrorists, not war."
you mean like Interpol?
"Are Terrorism acts criminal activity , or acts of war???"
This question may appear to have an intellectual nature but our government's answer is very mundane.
If the perpetrator hails from a country whose resources we covet or whom Israel hates then what they did is considered to be an act of war and we destroy that nation.
If the perpetrator is not from such a place then we still use his act as an excuse to destroy whatever nation happens to be in our crosshairs.
If the perpetrator is a right-wing American fanatic blowing up abortion clinics and gay nightclubs then we consider it a crime - sometimes.
q
Terrorism, by definition, is NOT an act of war. Terrorist acts are random by small, detached groups who have an agenda. The enemy is not readily detected. They are acts of violence against innocent people for political reasons.
Wars, on the other hand, are actions with a defined enemy that is part of the government.
Buchanan acts like he is as much a wackjob as bin Laden. Torture an already cooperating criminal? Deny him medication?
Maybe he is the leader of Al Cracka?
obviously the usa is not a totalitarian society; nazi germany was:
in nazi germany if your dad denounced you to the gestapo you were a goner...
in the usa if that happens (as it happened with this nigerian dilettante terrorist from a good family who was banned from the uk and denounced to the usa embassy by his dad, and was in various lists domestic and foreign as a likely fanatic fundamentalist),
in the usa some gov guy sits on the denunciation and immediately phones the local strip joint (or chippendales) to reserve his/her favorite stripper for the night to celebrate the fruits of his/her work day (and then does nothing more about the denunciation!)
comm'on people. many of the names of the 9/11 terrorists in the planes' passenger lists were recognized right away by the heads of the FBI, etc, only that these heads never bothered telling the names to immigration or customs at airports.
the 9/11 terrorists were abominable amateurs of zero skill and the gov. organizations in charge of fighting them were the real criminals.
life sentences should have been given to all those who allowed the 9/11 terrorists' names (and pics) not to show up in the immigration and customs computers.
but gates and the fbi guy got gov gold medals instead !
will there be medals now for the gov. people who allowed the nigerian kid's name not to show up in the same computers?
The repeated success of known terrorist to gain entry to airplanes, even to get visas, dispite their names being on watchlists, tells me that the US government is allowing them to for their own reasons.
Nothing like a good terrorist attack to get the purse strings back opened for the Terrorist-Industrial Complex, and get the American people to allow a few more of their rights to be permanently removed.
When is someone going to stand up and ask what the terrorists want? That's what settled the Iranian hostage crisis, and though it was a tactic used by Reagan to win an election, he at least asked them what it would take to release the people and it almost worked. Has no one even thought to ask, what do you want from us Mr. Osama bin Laden? You cannot defend against a growing Muslim hatred against westerners. I won't allow my kids to serve in this world war horror.
Osama Bin laden has very clearly stated his demands.
The short answer: get american troops out of Muslim holy lands.
He (along with millions of Muslims) views the presence of U.S. troops in the holy lands of Mecca and Medina (Saudi Arabia and Kuwait) as a religious affront and demands they leave.
It's not only religious though - the U.S. troops are there to insure the continued rule of the corrupt House of Saud. It's not only Bin Laden who chafes under this brutally corrupt family's rule and desires the end of it. Of course the U.S. benefits tremendously by keeping the Saud's in control.
There's more, such as continued U.S. installed and supported dictators across the Muslim world to ensure U.S. access to resources. In his objection to this he is joined by billions - Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Atheists, actually anyone with a brain and a heart and a sense of fairness learned in kindergarten.
The U.S. has long ago replaced the older European colonial powers as the most malevolent force on the planet. Nothing new.
I doubt Bin Laden desires the end of the U.S. any more than i do, but billions of us desire the end of it's unspeakably brutal influence on the world in selfish pursuit of the right to buy mountains of cheap crap produced by it's desperate victims around the world.
That ain't gonna happen until the U.S. collapses from internal decay. It's rotting fast, but it's big so i think it will be a long and tragic wait for the billions suffering under it's huge power.
Palestine was one of the issues behind 9/11, but the primary one was the presence of American troops in Saudi Arabia, thus the reason that most of the terrorists were from that country. Months after 9/11, George Bush quietly removed American troops from Saudi Arabia, fulfilling bin Laden's desires.
There was an article here on CommonDreams about the troop removal. The story never made it into the mainstream American press.
And Spencer, thank you so much for asking the intuitive questions and giving the right answers to Buchanon and company. I was surprised Mr. Engels is seeing things so clearly but, if anyone should know, it would be he. When I look at Obama's expressions these days, he looks dumbfounded and lost and as if he was not expecting the things that have happened. Do you think we have the right people in the right places to do the things we need to do to prevent another world war? Because it sure feels like that's where we are going.
thong-girl
Osama Bin Laden has written numerous 'Letters to America'
(www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/nov/24/theobserver)..
He has clearly defined his wants....but our media hides this from us....the Brits report much more factually and in-depth on this specific matter.
Google "Bin Laden Letters to america"...you'll fin it all
Pat, you dumbass, This is no war. How did you get so worked up without bringing the Jews into it?
Oooooo.... there are those "rough countries where the United States is NOT wanted". I have news for these talking head morons... The WORLD is a place where the United States is NOT wanted.
thong-girl
There were allegations, never proven, that people in the Reagan campaign may have negotiated with the new Iranian government to postpone the release of the prisoners until after the November elections. Quite frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if it was found that the Republicans did something like this. Dirty Republican politics didn't start with Karl Rove.
I, for one, did not condemn Carter for his handling of the hostage situation. Besides, NOTHING was going to get me to vote for Reagan. I wasn't taken in by his "charm", like so many millions of American voters. He wasn't even a particularly good actor. Let's face it, Reagan wasn't the great president that he was made out to be during his funeral. His trickle-down stupidity was the beginning of the decline of the United States and the destruction of the middle class.
obviously the usa is not a totalitarian society; nazi germany was:
in nazi germany if your dad denounced you to the gestapo you were a goner...
in the usa if that happens (as it happened with this nigerian dilettante terrorist from a good family who was banned from the uk and denounced to the usa embassy by his dad, and was in various lists domestic and foreign as a likely fanatic fundamentalist),
in the usa some gov guy sits on the denunciation and immediately phones the local strip joint (or chippendales) to reserve his/her favorite stripper for the night to celebrate the fruits of his/her work day (and then does nothing more about the denunciation!)
comm'on people. many of the names of the 9/11 terrorists in the planes' passenger lists were recognized right away by the heads of the FBI, etc, only that these heads never bothered telling the names to immigration or customs at airports.
the 9/11 terrorists were abominable amateurs of zero skill and the gov. organizations in charge of fighting them were the real criminals.
life sentences should have been given to all those who allowed the 9/11 terrorists' names (and pics) not to show up in the immigration and customs computers.
but gates and the fbi guy got gov gold medals instead !
will there be medals now for the gov. people who allowed the nigerian kid's name not to show up in the same computers?