Naomi Klein on the War on Terror

[arisbe]

" What I mean is that on September 11, George W Bush went looking for a political philosophy to guide him in his new role as “War President,” a job for which he was uniquely unqualified. He found that philosophy in the Likud Doctrine, conveniently handed to him ready-made by the ardent Likudniks already ensconced in the White House. No thinking required. In the three years since, the Bush White House has applied this imported logic with chilling consistency to its global “war on terror” — complete with the pathologising and medicalising of the “Muslim mind”. It was the guiding philosophy in Afghanistan and Iraq, and may well extend to Iran and Syria. It’s not simply that Bush sees America’s role as protecting Israel from a hostile Arab world. It’s that he has cast the United States in the very same role in which Israel casts itself, facing the very same threat. In this narrative, the U.S. is fighting a never ending battle for its very survival against utterly irrational forces that seek nothing less than its total extermination.

"And now the Likudization narrative has spread to Russia."

Comments

[seraphimsigrist.livejournal.com]

I do not care for phrases like likudization which
strike me as coming out of some argumentation driven
by obscure hatreds. well in general I dislike schematic
phrases but this has a dark flavor to me taste more
than most. I doubt its ingestion is good for us.
+Seraphim.

[arisbe.livejournal.com]

It has the virtue of making it clear that the problem is not Israel or even Zionism, but one faction of the present government of Israel, a faction too much influenced by American intellectuals.

[seraphimsigrist.livejournal.com]

this is not a line of thought that I accept,
without any claim that I know I am right in
not doing so or with any other thought, but I
can understand that if one thinks this than that
is a way one might speak. anyhow... just the
occasional harrumph from russia with love
and hi to Maya. +Seraphim.

Tell me arisbe

[rawmr.livejournal.com]

Is S. not a master of speaking his mind purely and abstractly, while at the same time making any confrontation quite impossible? ;-)

[seraphimsigrist.livejournal.com]

well if I did it often it would be downright
annoying wouldnt it? but perhaps once in a while
is ok? +S.

Re: Tell me arisbe

[arisbe.livejournal.com]

+S doesn't seem to see much good ever coming out of confrontation as such, and there are days I agree with him.

I do not care for phrases like likudization

[rawmr.livejournal.com]

It does smack of reactionism.