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| Of Terror, Hard and Soft Power and Nicolo Machiavelli |
| 2004-01-07 |
| I just had to post this. "The following is taken from a BBS exchange I have been watching. The thread is primarily a critical look at the American War on Terror and our use of force. I enjoyed the response below so much I requested, and was granted permission, by the author to post it here. The author is yet another traditional Democrat voter who has a realistic view of the War on Terror. He caught hold of a lot of themes that a "neo-con" (I use that term half tongue-in-cheek) like myself has internalized. Without further ado, I give you "Bouncer", in: The response to the "your violence is just making things worse crowd" or..."why rewarding bad behavior doesn’t work." "If more time and money was spent on dealing with these issues then we will be on the road to solving this issue without turning to violence." Bullshit. You’re burying your head in the sand again. The US tried buying them off with Saudia Arabia and it didn’t do jack shit but fund OBL. The US tried the opposite tack in ignoring them in the case of Afghanistan and that didn’t work either. You cannot buy yourself out from this. Ever. You need to get over this concept that enough time and money can change things in these countries. They haven’t and they won’t. UN pressure won’t either, because no one is willing to back UN words up and none of these countries respect the concept of the UN, much less it’s application. It is simply a tool to be manipulated in their view, and that’s all it is. It’s ideals are hollow nothings in their eyes. There is no fundamental respect for it as a body, and therefore it has no ability to change anything in these countries. The only way to effectively deal with this is to engage each country directly. For those that we can talk to or (when necessary) who we can intimidate into compliance, we will. For those we cannot, they must know we will enter the country by force and remove the ability to wage war in this fashion and end the current regime. Thing is, we are not just doing this for ourselves. We are, once again, acting to protect all of western civilization including some of our harshest critics. We’re not making a deal with AQ or OBL or Khaddaffi, saying "The US is off limits but have at Australia or Canada or Germany or France and we won’t do anything". Which I honestly believe (don’t you?) is a deal France and probably Germany would make in a heartbeat. What we are saying to these countries is that state sponsored terrorism of this type must stop. It will stop. You will stop it. Or we will remove you and replace you with people who will try to stop it. And you know what? That IS a more mature and balanced response. The whole thing of trying to bribe the religious bullies and cut throat dictators into something approaching reasonable behaviour has a legacy of forty years of abject fucking failure. I defy you to show me a single nation that has emerged from under the rule of either theocracy or dictatorship because of buying them off. You can’t. Not one. It. Doesn’t. Fucking. Work. The brutish truth is that the invasion and occupation of Iraq has done more to restrain these bullies and theocracies in one year than either the UN or your view has accomplished in your and my entire lifetimes. That’s the plain, nasty, ugly truth of it. It works. And this may surprise you ******, but I didn’t think it would. But it has and it does. Khaddaffi’s 180 degree turn ISN’T a product of anything but this new direct policy. Iran’s sudden willingness to let IAEA inspectors in isn’t a result of anything but this. The crackdowns in SA against AQ and associated elements isn’t because of anything but this. The emergence of the Loya Jirga with actual live females sitting in it isn’t the result of anything but this. You see.. the fundamental difference is, you see the proper use of force as being not to use it at all. That is, to wave the possibility of force around in order to achieve compliance. And that sounds nice and keeps the body count low. But the thing is, if you’re not ever really willing to use that force then eventually it stops being a realistic threat. Eventually the bullies stop BELIEVING you. There is one universal truth in the ME right now. Do not fuck with the United States. Because gosh golly, they WILL actually do it! Holy crap on the Koran they’re NOT toothless tigers that will run when the first blood is shed! They ARE willing to pick up the gun when necessary. That’s the difference. They may not like us, in fact many of them hate us. But here’s the weird thing. They actually respect us more because we stood up. Because they know for a fact that we’re NOT afraid to take on the Holy Jihad. Their most powerful weapon has always been the noise of righteousness and the belief that we were afraid of them and their Holy War. And they now realize that guess what. We’re NOT afraid. We’re NOT afraid of them. We’re NOT afraid of their god. We’re NOT afraid of their righteousness. And you bet your sweet ass that changes everything. You do a lot less thundering in the pulpit against the Harlot after she marches right down the aisle and kicks you in the nuts. Because now, to them, for the first time in a long time, the threat of American action is a real thing. Machiavelli said it best: "friendships that are obtained by payments, and not by greatness or nobility of mind, may indeed be earned, but they are not secured, and in time of need cannot be relied upon; and men have less scruple in offending one who is beloved than one who is feared, for love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails." He was right. He is right. Especially now, in the Mid-East. Nicolo cautions us though: "Nevertheless a prince ought to inspire fear in such a way that, if he does not win love, he avoids hatred; because he can endure very well being feared whilst he is not hated, which will always be as long as he abstains from the property of his citizens and subjects and from their women. But when it is necessary for him to proceed against the life of someone, he must do it on proper justification and for manifest cause, but above all things he must keep his hands off the property of others, because men more quickly forget the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony." And this is why the US isn’t declaring Iraq the 51st state or seizing it’s oil fields or it’s women. The US and the coalition is in the process of rebuilding Iraq, of that there can be no doubt. It is in the process of creating a civil government which is democratically controlled. Of that there can be no doubt either. The time table may be faster or slower than you or I or France likes, but consider that the US occupied Japan for SEVEN years after WWII and for FOUR years in Germany. It’s not even been 10 MONTHS since the invasion began. Give it three years, and THEN start talking about how we’ve been there too long or how we’re imperialistic. Regards, Bouncer |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #1 Execellent Post! This guy hit it right on the head! Fred, Can we get this added to the 'Classics'? |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2004-1-7 11:11:01 PM |