![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Knee-jerks and knob-jockeys
Jul. 18th, 2005 11:46 amThe London attacks were a tragedy. The identity of the bombers as British born makes it even worse and I understand that the Western World is rightly shocked and shaken, but that is no reason to abandon common sense! Left, right and centre I'm hearing Australians tremble in paranoia that "we're going to be next". In an absolute failure of logic, one person presented the argument that after New York and London, that just left Aus to attack... hello? Madrid.
Then there are those that try to simplify the whole global situation into an argument either supporting war and attacks on the entire Muslim populace or calling for complete inaction and a withrawal of all Western invovement in the Middle East. Of course, neither of these strategies provide a solution and are just knee-jerk responses based on incomplete perspectives on the situation. WIthdrawing all western involvement, especially economic, from the East has enormous economic repercussions and would seriously harm the economy of several Middle East countries, and if you're arguing that poverty and economic inequality are the causes then you'd just make the situation worse. If only terrorism was purely economically motivated. While there's some truth to the argument, it's only a small part. Likewise to those that embrace xenophobia and the Dubya approach. The War on Terror is unwinnable - like the War on Drugs it just serves to control the American population and waste large amounts of money. We all know Iraq was a mistake (well, more of a blantant lie that should see Dubya impeached, but that's another rant), but withdrawing now would just land the country in more trouble and more innocent civilians would be killed - kind of like the mess we all left in Afganistan where the tribal leaders and war lords are still scrabbling for power. Not to say no action should be taken against terrorists or that we should aquiesce to their wants - it's well proven that submitting to terrorist demands just leads to more terrorism as you prove the technique works (people who can't see this obviously have never dealt with a tantruming 2yr old).
*sigh* it's a complicated mess, and my heart goes out to those who lost loved ones in the London bombings, including the parents, wives and children of the bombers who never saw it coming =( My heart also goes out to the thousands of Iraquis killed as a result of US and insurgent violence. Thinking of the 26 children killed by a car bomb the other day just makes me want to cry at the pointlessness of it all. The important thing though, is to keep a level head and not give in to knee-jerk reactions or hysteria, and what is troubling me most is that so many of my country people seem to have lost their heads. The last thing this country needs is more uninformed emotionalism. It just leads to bullshit like this.
Then there are those that try to simplify the whole global situation into an argument either supporting war and attacks on the entire Muslim populace or calling for complete inaction and a withrawal of all Western invovement in the Middle East. Of course, neither of these strategies provide a solution and are just knee-jerk responses based on incomplete perspectives on the situation. WIthdrawing all western involvement, especially economic, from the East has enormous economic repercussions and would seriously harm the economy of several Middle East countries, and if you're arguing that poverty and economic inequality are the causes then you'd just make the situation worse. If only terrorism was purely economically motivated. While there's some truth to the argument, it's only a small part. Likewise to those that embrace xenophobia and the Dubya approach. The War on Terror is unwinnable - like the War on Drugs it just serves to control the American population and waste large amounts of money. We all know Iraq was a mistake (well, more of a blantant lie that should see Dubya impeached, but that's another rant), but withdrawing now would just land the country in more trouble and more innocent civilians would be killed - kind of like the mess we all left in Afganistan where the tribal leaders and war lords are still scrabbling for power. Not to say no action should be taken against terrorists or that we should aquiesce to their wants - it's well proven that submitting to terrorist demands just leads to more terrorism as you prove the technique works (people who can't see this obviously have never dealt with a tantruming 2yr old).
*sigh* it's a complicated mess, and my heart goes out to those who lost loved ones in the London bombings, including the parents, wives and children of the bombers who never saw it coming =( My heart also goes out to the thousands of Iraquis killed as a result of US and insurgent violence. Thinking of the 26 children killed by a car bomb the other day just makes me want to cry at the pointlessness of it all. The important thing though, is to keep a level head and not give in to knee-jerk reactions or hysteria, and what is troubling me most is that so many of my country people seem to have lost their heads. The last thing this country needs is more uninformed emotionalism. It just leads to bullshit like this.
