I just noticed that two recent posts -- on anti-Communism in the 1980s and the dangers of Indonesia -- have a buried common thread. They're both about Americans who quiver in their boots about something that really isn't such an enormous threat. Weak-bellied fear is a hidden trait of conservatives who otherwise like to talk tough. When Americans get spooked, unfortunately, we tend to go blow things up, and the effect is a bit like a scared elephant stomping a mouse. That's what happened in Nicaragua in the 1980s; it's what happened in Iraq last year.* Paranoia turns Americans into un-Americans; it's how we get lulled into illiberal nonsense like random searches on the subway in Boston, which you should protest even if you don't live there. (Thanks Marc.) "Give me liberty or give me death." Right? Guys? ... Hey guys?
* Not that Iraq was no threat at all: At Radio Free Mike we still think toppling Saddam would have been unavoidable -- in fact a western-power duty -- in the near future. But he was put up as a straw man to avoid dealing with an even deeper problem in Saudi Arabia, which still festers.
posted by Michael Scott Moore |
12:47 AM
