US AND THEM!!!!
We have been in the midst of a so-called War on Terror. We are not calling it that anymore after the Obama Adminstration decided to change it. But, the fact remains that we are in the midst of a struggle to root out extremism around the world. It has manifested itself in a brutal way in Pakistan. The reports I am seeing are horrific account of intense fighting and a potential refugee problem of some 500,000 people.
There has been a prevalent school of thought that terrorism has to be defeated. This was the thinking that seems to have carried itself into the Bush Adminstration. That's why the advocacy by Louise Richardson especially interests me. As I read a profile of her in the Financial Times recently, I absolutely agreed with her on the bungled response that America had after 9/11. The overreaction included the Patroit Act at Home, Rendition, Warrantless Wiretaps, Torture (aka Enhanced Interrogation techniques) and other extraordinary measures to combat the security threat. This was an interview she gave to UC Television a while back:
The biggest tragedy of it all was how the media covered it. As Jennie Erdal writes in the Article, "....In the US, for weeks and months afterwards, there were heartbreaking programmes on television about every firefighter and policeman who had been killed, and the suffering caused to their families." She believes that if this TV footage had been cast in much broader terms, if the response had been global instead of fixated on American grief, a very different message would have been sent. ' I would have asked the media to make filsm of every Jordanian, every Egyptian, every Muslim family who ahd come to the US to live a peaceful and positive life, only to have it blown to smithereens by al-Qaeda. And I have would have broadcast the films all over the Middle East." As I read this, I wonder why the Bush Adminstration ubber-spinmaster, Karen Hughes, did not think about it then.
Although I wonder about what may have been, now we will never really know. We did not even try. That's the biggest tragedy of it all which has resulted in untold suffering by many. It could have been different. It should have been different.
There has been a prevalent school of thought that terrorism has to be defeated. This was the thinking that seems to have carried itself into the Bush Adminstration. That's why the advocacy by Louise Richardson especially interests me. As I read a profile of her in the Financial Times recently, I absolutely agreed with her on the bungled response that America had after 9/11. The overreaction included the Patroit Act at Home, Rendition, Warrantless Wiretaps, Torture (aka Enhanced Interrogation techniques) and other extraordinary measures to combat the security threat. This was an interview she gave to UC Television a while back:
The biggest tragedy of it all was how the media covered it. As Jennie Erdal writes in the Article, "....In the US, for weeks and months afterwards, there were heartbreaking programmes on television about every firefighter and policeman who had been killed, and the suffering caused to their families." She believes that if this TV footage had been cast in much broader terms, if the response had been global instead of fixated on American grief, a very different message would have been sent. ' I would have asked the media to make filsm of every Jordanian, every Egyptian, every Muslim family who ahd come to the US to live a peaceful and positive life, only to have it blown to smithereens by al-Qaeda. And I have would have broadcast the films all over the Middle East." As I read this, I wonder why the Bush Adminstration ubber-spinmaster, Karen Hughes, did not think about it then.
Although I wonder about what may have been, now we will never really know. We did not even try. That's the biggest tragedy of it all which has resulted in untold suffering by many. It could have been different. It should have been different.
Mike Pouraryan
