Opinion Forum

Scare Thine Enemy

June 1st, 2009

We’ve heard a lot in the news lately about whether we are more or less safe as a nation now than we were under the Bush Administration. The main bone of contention recently has been the release of memos relating to interrogation tactics used between 2001 and 2008, but as far as the nation’s safety is concerned all that happened in the past is really a very minor issue.

The real threat to our country comes not from what we did in the past. It comes from the message we are sending the world now — and that message is: we are not going to be that aggressive any more, we respect those who want to kill us and will treat them as if they were a legitimate army fighting under the flag of a legitimate country. That is not only a dangerously stupid stance, it’s a sure sign of our growing weakness. Those people who hate America, hate what we stand for and want us destroyed, those people who thrive on terror tactics will feed on their impression of our weakness and yearn to use it to their advantage; it makes their mouths water for another bite out of America.

Granted our country is not weak or afraid of our enemies, but impressions are very important — sometimes more important than direct threats or actions.

On a personal level: if a violent person breaks into your home, confronts you and your family and gets the impression that you will hesitate before tearing his throat out (to use a violent example), he will not hesitate to tear yours out immediately. I used that violent example for a reason, because extreme violence is the only language that extremely violent people understand.

Its no different with America and the violent terrorist organizations that hate us. If they have the impression of weakness — if they have the impression that we will use only civilized methods to fight them they will attack with such ferocity and such confidence in their victory that they will not be able to imagine defeat. It’s a dangerous man who thinks himself invulnerable.

So am I advocating the use of extreme measures against our enemy? Yes I am — as extreme as theirs. Am I advocating torture when we interrogate prisoners? Yes, if our field commanders think it justified and believe that it will yield vital, life-saving information.

Most of all I’m advocating an unrelentingly fierce public stance — a promise to the world that we will ignore all calls for civilized behavior when we are engaged with an enemy who uses uncivilized terror tactics against innocent noncombatants.

The bottom line is we have to scare our enemies — scare them so badly that their hate begins to be tempered by fear and respect for the savage nation that will not hesitate to use their own tactics against them.

This, however, will likely never happen — not until those who provide for our nation’s safety come to realize the truth in that age old adage: you must fight fire with fire. They no doubt will realize that some day but before they do, its a very real possibility that too much damage will be done to our country and far too many innocent lives will be lost.

News links:

Bush defends “terror” policies, AlJazeera.net
Obama’s and Cheney’s Dueling Realities on National Security, U.S. News & World Report

Blog links:

Obama’s socialism, A weak national defense, Chris Simcox’s Weblog
How Ridiculous It Is To Think The Left Has Left-Wing Goals, Rhymes with Cars and Girls:

(This article was also posted at My View from the Center.)

Articles written by Harvey Grund
Tags: terrorism, torture
Categories: Military, Politics | Comments (3) | Home

3 Responses to “Scare Thine Enemy”

Trooper Thorn | June 1st, 2009 at 2:08 pm

You are so correct. The terrorists do not hate the West for what we have done, they hate us for the freedom we stand for, because it is a threat to their control over their own terrified followers. They will not stop until our society is as restrictive and regressive as theirs, or we are completely destroyed.

A “kindler, gentler” America will only receive more aggression.

Kevin | June 1st, 2009 at 3:34 pm

Yeah, ’cause America was repeatedly attacked by Muslims before we reinstalled the Shah in Iran (overturning a democratically elected government in the process) and before we helped the House of Saud consolidate it’s power in Saudi Arabia and before we played global chess with other nations in the region like Iraq and Egypt and Syria and Israel. Before any of that, those darn Muslims were just attacking us left and right – thus proving that the current attacks have nothing whatever to do with our own nation’s geopolitical machinations.

Think about your basic premise. Was there anything that England could have done to “scare” the American colonists sufficiently that they’d have chosen meek servitude over self-determination?

With all due respect, what you are arguing for is, IMHO, sheer lunacy utterly at odds with our own history.

Harvey | June 1st, 2009 at 11:58 pm

Kevin,

You are certainly entitled to your opinion and your opinion that I’m talking lunacy is a good start but I’d be interested to know what you’re advocating.

What I’m advocating is obviously a tough, aggressive stance against those people who are out to destroy us. What I’m advocating is basic personal self-defense on a national level.

I don’t know what England could or could not have done to scare the American colonists into servitude and frankly that’s not history, it’s supposition. Lets focus on what we can do now — in this world under these circumstances.

Do you not believe that these people I described exist? If you do, how do you think we should approach them — with apologies, as President Obama is sure to do on his upcoming trip to Egypt? Should we assure them that we are now a kinder gentler nation? Should we serve Israel to them on a silver platter? Should we surrender the progress that so many American and Allied soldiers fought and died for in Iraq by abandoning that country?

I don’t know Kevin — all I know so far is that you think I’m a lunatic and perhaps your right! George Banks thought so!

True story: George Banks was the 8th grade bully where I went to school. I finally got very tired of George and his bullying ways with me and especially with some smaller friends of mine, so one day I faced him down. We stood on a street corner and I traded punches with George — something no one (to my knowledge) had done. I don’t think either of us won the fight but I certainly won his respect for standing up to him — he was still a bully after that day but he never dared touch me again. It was years later before I really understood that he respected me only because I talked to him in the only language he understood — violence!

I’m thinking now that this post was badly named — it should have been “Smite Thine Enemy” and the bottom line is, that’s what I’m advocating for America.