BEHEADINGS EQUAL 9/11

After listening to the news this morning, I realize the beheading have changed American policy as sure as 90/11. Of course, the recent beheading of a man named Henning, the latest of four beheadings, was the immediate focus of attention. Nevertheless, the fact remains that a small group of radical religious nuts was able to change American attitude by terror. The events of 9/11 were much more complex, intricately planned, and dramatic when one man with a knife committed his gruesome and dirt compared to 19 radicals and the highjacking of four airplanes with the large number of deaths and the destruction of two large buildings. Part of the hysteria related to the fact that the man with the knife sounded as if he came from our close ally, Britain—if it could happen with Brits it could happen with Americans but of course, the shear brutality of beheadings on film made the most impact. The American people, over the last few months, went adamantly from not wanting to engage in war in the Middle East to reluctantly approving our bombing of Iraq and Syria with each beheading, a growing number even want to have US troops on the ground. The difference between then and now is the nature of the presidential response, which was dramatic.

President Bush, spurred on by a radial right wing neo con group, used the event of 9/11 to take advantage of the situation both from international relations, economic, and from political points of view, in addition and unbelievable, from a domestic religious point of view. Certain members of the Christian community wanted us to hate Muslims in the manner of the 16^th century crusades. Of course, there were those most vocal individuals trying to fractionate the American electorate into “Republican flag waving patriots and “Godless money stealing liberals” edged on the religious components. Add to this the confusion of the Israel-Palestine conflict, the Iranian nuclear ambitions, the trouble in Tunisia, and the Iraqi, Egyptian, and Syrian dictators and the picture becomes hopelessly muddled—certainly beyond bumper sticker logic that seems to guide most American thinking. In the midst of all this chaos, Bush chose to invade Iraq in spite of our bitter and failed Korean and Vietnam history.

President Obama has taken a dramatically different approach. It is irrefutable; these “beheading events” were driving his response just as 9/11 drove Bush. The news media has consistently been a decade behind Obama thinking; they equate what he is doing with what Bush did; there is no absolutely equivalency. Our president learned from Vietnam, Korea, Iraq, Tunisia, and Egypt; American troops on the ground will not solve the complex problems . . . the problems are sectarian religious problems only the local people can solve. The local people are the ones who will have to do the fighting if they are to own their own countries—no U.S. boots on the ground is as simple as that.  However, our president also recognizes the people need a chance to solve those problems, and the U.S. and coalition member bombing is what will give them the time. With time, the brutality of ISIS will turn against them. They could easily succumb to a brutal dictator ruled by terror again just as in the past if the terrorist are allowed to move rapidly. He has recognizes that the American way is perhaps the only solution, which is separation of church and state, which in turn is Democracy even though he has to fight such silliness as banning of Burkas and Sharia law in the United States. This requires the shedding of an ingrained way of life in the Middle East: caliphate dictators. This is not country building, but it is spreading of democracy. This is not the empire building of the neo cons; it is spreading of freedom. I like to think that our president is turning terror on its head. I wish the news media would wise up and appreciate his skill.   

        

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