New from Bush/Cheney

Got another exciting e-mail from the Bush/Cheney campaign, rife with material for new commentary.

First, this paragraph:

"The same qualities that make a great athlete make a great President--the determination to do what is right, regardless of the latest polls, the personal strength to bear the weight of the nation on your shoulders, and the faith that a higher power will direct the actions of good people."

Um.

I wasn't aware that there were polls on how athletes should do their thing, or what they should do. I'm also fairly certain that athletes are not universally faithful, or dependent on a higher power to direct their actions. 'Hm. Pray or exercise. Pray or execise. Screw practice. I think I'll pray.' And the image of a few hundred million people climbing on GWB's back and crushing him to a bloody pulp raises some mirth in me.

Then there's something that represents a fundamental philosophical difference between me and the president, and others of his ideological ilk. "In 2001, our nation was attacked without cause or provocation."

It's much, MUCH easier to an irrational, inhuman enemy who does horrendous things without reason, plan or cause. It's convenient to have such a bugaboo with which to scare people, to manipulate and use them. But it's also dangerously shortsighted.

To be sure, those terrorist attacks were brutal, inhumane, disproportionate and, dare I say it, evil. But to say there was no cause or provocation is to abdicate the best tool to meet our responsibility, the responsibility even BushCo says we have: To eradicate terrorism.

The best way to defeat terrorism as a tactic is to discover its root causes and change the conditions so it doesn't happen, it can't happen. To do that, we have to understand why they do what they do; why, rightly, or wrongly, they feel aggrieved; to fix what we can, and change what we must, either within ourselves or within them (including killing or bringing to justice those who act with indiscriminate violence against the greater good of society and will not abandon their murderous methods). The Bush/Cheney attitude seems to be that we never do anything wrong and we never have, and that there is no need to understand our enemies' mindset, or what or how they feel.

But we will never, never make any progress against terrorism until we address its root causes. Treat the disease, not the symptoms. Absent this, all we are doing is creating martyrs and, de facto, creating fertile ground for the growth of more terrorists.

They had a cause. They believed they had been provoked. This is not to say I think they were right -- that's simply absurd. But in their minds, they believed they had to act to stop us. They've even told us why they did it: Our unconditional support of Israel and the oppression of Palestinians, continued American interference into the affairs of the Middle East, American bases in Saudi Arabia, etc. Why won't BushCo listen? Understanding is not surrender, whatever they may think.