Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id WAA16189 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Mon, 15 Apr 2002 22:35:18 +0100 From: "Lawrence DeBivort" <debivort@umd5.umd.edu> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: Bush's War on Terrorism, Asian Viewpoint Date: Mon, 15 Apr 2002 17:29:59 -0400 Message-ID: <NEBBKOADILIOKGDJLPMAEEGGCOAA.debivort@umd5.umd.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2910.0) X-Mimeole: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2919.6700 Importance: Normal In-Reply-To: <B8E0D6BA.B1%srdrew_1@hotmail.com> Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
There was a great panic here in Washington, right after Sept 11, an
understandable panic. It was a new kind of attack, it was on the US, and it
wasn't clear whether there was more to come.
One of the concerns was how, to quell the panic from spreading around the
country, to show that we had a strong leadership that would handle things.
This, unfortunately, played to Bush's fear that he was perceived as weak in
the area of foreign policy. The language used -- the meme- was "We have to
do SOMETHING quick, or we will look weak."
Combine this with the fundamentalist faction of the Republican party, throw
in some resentment among foreign policy officals that they didn't 'finish
the job' under Bush senior with regard to Saddam Hussein and his ilk, and
you get a pretty volatile mixture of passions and fears: you get the "War on
Terrorism."
There were several of us who knew this was foolish (there was even some
debate on this list about it), but in the end judgements about foreign
policy are always subject to a wait-and-see. Who in the end will prove
right?
Your idea about the law of unintended consequences is highly applicable -- I
wish I thought to couch the issue in this way myself. "Terrorism" is too
big and varied a subject to be embraced by the "War on Terror" notion -- as
we are slooooooowly discovering.
Lawrence
> -----Original Message-----
> From: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk [mailto:fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk]On Behalf
> Of Steve Drew
> Sent: Monday, April 15, 2002 4:22 PM
> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Subject: Bush's War on Terrorism, Asian Viewpoint
>
>
> Hi Grant
>
> > Date: Sun, 14 Apr 2002 08:44:54 -0700
> > From: "Grant Callaghan" <grantc4@hotmail.com>
> > Subject: Bush's War on Terrorism, Asian Viewpoint
> >
> > The law of unintended consequences is now coming into play.
> What America is
> > doing looks much different through the eyes of people in Southeast Asia.
> > Many see it as a opportunity to use American ignorance of local
> issues to
> > carry out their own agendas with U.S. help. Others see the
> U.S. as a bull
> > in a china shop causing havoc as they blunder into situations they don't
> > understand and try to equate everything they see to the Al
> Qaeda and Osama
> > bin Laden.
> >
> > Grant
>
> Interesting piece. In some respects this reflects what the critics in the
> West said when the War On Terrorism was announced. The various political,
> religious and cultural differences around the world are so varied that to
> try and lump them all together was naive.
>
> Is it a case of they must be seen to be doing something or do the American
> (and UK for that matter) authorities really believe they are
> fighting a war?
>
> Regards
>
> Steve
>
>
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