In response, in part, to my earlier post and to Rick Perlstein (who replies in turn), David Horowitz asks if the left knows who the enemy is.
Before I answer in more detail, let me also draw everyone’s attention to something else I posted earlier because a similar theme can be drawn from the Minutemen video which shows one of the Minutemen murdering an illegal immigrant crossing the border (the video has since been taken down from Youtube – if I find it again, I’ll post the link in an update).
First for those who cannot sit through Mr. Horowitz’s “educational” video about jihadism, let me provide a short summary of what you will find there. Basically, he highlights some of the major terrorist attacks from around the world in the last thirty years or so with dates and summaries and plotted points on a world map of where they occurred. Interspersed throughout this data (which is perfectly accurate) are disturbing and graphic photos of dead bodies and the carnage from these attacks.
Mr. Horowitz also provides quotes from various terrorists and muslims which either call other muslims to arms against Americans or simply state the speaker’s wish to humble or kill Americans (again perfectly accurate and sourced).
All the while dramatic and over the top music is being played and the film graphics are being used to create discomfort and tension to the listener. It’s extremely disturbing. It is meant to be.
Finally the video closes with pictures of muslims in Los Angeles and Chicago marching and demonstrating in support of Palestine or against the war. The obvious message is that the jihadists responsible for terrorist attacks around the world are the same ones in Chicago, Los Angeles, Iran, and Palestine. That they are all a part of a world-wide movement to destroy America.
It’s the kind of sick paranoid fantasy world which allows Mr. Horowitz to believe he’s a soldier on the frontlines just by blogging and churning out newsletters and op-eds. Because they’re everywhere. And they’re trying to kill you and you and you and aren’t I brave for standing up and sticking it in their eye and you better watch out and you better not vote for the lib-ruls because they’re a bunch of fucking hippies and remember how they stabbed us in the back in ‘Nam?
Let me just say first, Mr. Horowitz, that I’ve served. Let me just say that I support the war in Afghanistan and I support an effective response to 9/11, Osama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, and anyone else responsible for the deaths of over 3,000 Americans on that awful September day.
Let me also say that I knew who Bin Laden was before that day. Did you? See, I remember Bill Clinton, Sandy Berger, Al Gore, Madeleine Albright, and William Cohen talking about him and talking about terrorism, trying to warn Congress about the dangers and trying to explain the need to allocate intel resources toward the terrorist target. Do you remember that?
Perhaps you remember the cruise missile attacks on Bin Laden camps during the Lewinsky scandal and how Clinton got ridiculed for them. Except, unlike now, Clinton wasn’t ridiculed for ordering too soft a military response. He was ridiculed for exaggerating the threat. He was accused of wagging the dog. Remember that?
So before you attempt to claim a conservative monopoly on “knowing the enemy,” go back to that time and ask yourself if you knew who the enemy was then. And if not, why not?
I suppose there wasn’t any money in it back then.
But let’s forget about the past, right? 9/11 changed everything. Right? So what are we doing today?
Well it seems that you are trying to convince everyone that there’s an Islamic invasion underway. And apparently you feel you have the pictures to prove it. But your vision of the Islamic invasion only works if you see no useful distinction to be made between American muslims marching and demonstrating against Israel and the war in Iraq, Palestinians muslims who rail against Israel, suicide bombers, Iranians who give political speeches against the “evils of America,” Osama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, the Taliban, Shiites, and Sunnis.
The problem is that these muslims are not a monolithic entity. Even a cursory survey of Middle Eastern history would tell you that. There is no “global jihad” in the sense that you mean. You are painting with a Cold War Soviet Union style brush. There is no danger of a domino effect here but that’s precisely the assumption you’re making.
You paint the picture of an Islamic fundamentalist invasion. In fact, you state quite clearly with the video that they’re already here!
But this is also the rhetorical tactic some conservatives have been using in the illegal immigration debate (see Newt Gingrich). And when conservatives tell people that a poor illegal immigrant who crosses the border to look for work and a better standard of life is invading and threatening our security, it is not much of a logical leap for a Minuteman to think murdering him is patriotic (see link above).
I agree with the many people (including conservatives) who say that illegal immigration and terrorism both require national and international efforts to resolve. I also agree that we will never solve these issues unless we are truly mobilized as a country to do so. But the roots to both problems are complicated and the solutions, likewise, are too.
The fear you seek to engender in people to deal with the problem actually detracts from the effort. Your pathological need to dehumanize and lump together all the right-wing muslim groups critical of our policies actually prevents us from making any progress. It’s us vs. them. Good vs. Evil. And there can be no saving grace, understanding, compromise, negotiation, understanding, reaching out, or co-existence with Evil. Because it’s fucking Evil, right?
In your world, there’s no other option than to just kill them all. You unilaterally take all other options off the table on the flip assumption that you have seen their souls and you can pass judgment on them. And, ironically, that it’s self-defense.
And I already mentioned that I served. Let me also say that one of my areas while in the service was counter-terrorism. And let me say that I worked alongside a person who saw the world the way you do. And let me also say that this person was constantly fucking shit up and making everyone else’s job harder.
He never bothered to analyze or think critically about things that came up, always made flip assessments, sent false reports up the chain of command, which we had to correct later, and wasted our time with overly dramatic reactions to rather innocuous or unreliable data.
In short, he was a serious drag on the effectiveness of our mission.
And let me just repeat what I said above. I support anything that is an effective response to terrorism and the attacks on 9/11. And your video, I’m afraid, is not. And giving it to the California Highway Patrol is a recipe for hate crime.
And as long as you peddle that brand of crap, you’re a part of the problem. Please get out of the way.
