GWOT Is It Good For?
Posted on April 17th, 2009
by Freddy Gray |
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Somebody called Zac Morgan at David Frum’s New Majority site berates Rachel Maddow for daring to make jokes about the rumors that the Obama administration is trying to drop the phrase “Global War on Terror.” This is no laughing matter, says Mr Morgan:
Maddow snarked about inaccurate reports that President Obama had changed the name of the Global War on Terrorism to “overseas contingency operations”, or as she found it delightfully amusing to call it “OCO”. In all the giddiness about etymology, one almost forgot the seriousness of the threat of global terrorism.
Mr Morgan, a former Bush administration political appointee, goes on to remind his readers of the terrifyingly global nature of global terror threat, pointing to Iran, Pakistan, Somalia and North Korea. He concludes:
We remain in the Global War on Terrorism. Or the Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism. Or the Global Battle Against Man-Made Disasters. Whatever we call it, it is real, and on the way to becoming the new majority, we should never hesitate to face this reality.
Never forget and be afraid. That’s the message of the young warriors who may well eventually build the next GOP majority. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance, and the price of the eternal vigilance is eternal humorlessness. Just you wait till the next 9/11, then we’ll see who is laughing.
Oh dear. Maddow’s problem, Zac, is that not that her taste in jokes is inappropriate; it’s just that she isn’t terribly funny. I’m all with her, though, when she mocks GWOT, OCO, or whatever other euphemistic misnomers the White House cooks up to justify its military misadventures.
These “New Majority” fellows are strange. For all their look-at-how-reasonable-we-are earnestness–we don’t mind gay marriage; we think global warming is real; we need to change the political Right’s tone– their outlook seems distressingly familiar to the nasty old GOP when it comes to foreign policy. Never forget and be afraid.
The New Majority is the worst of both worlds.
I think most people who identify as Republican would now agree that the Iraq war was a mistake, meaning that they might be ripe for some kind of foreign policy conversion if only someone in the party were willing/able to assert a modicum of leadership and explain why a change of course is the conservative thing to do.
Frum would like to position himself to lead the new style GOP, but as he is really a neocon his only concern is foreign policy. He’s willing to make the right noises to keep the hoi polloi on board, but I can’t imagine he gives a damn about abortion, immigration, gays, and global warming. GWOT means for him perpetual war on Muslims, which is what he is all about, and he will sacrifice every other consideration to keep that going.
The term Global War on Terrorism was always an embarrassment to those of us who wanted to take the war to those who attacked us. As many others have said, how do you declare war on a tactic?
Phillip. You’re right that he is interested in a never-ending war on Muslims, or at least those who threaten Israel. My problem and the problem I share with all those who sincerely believe that the West and Islam are incompatible, is, how does one defend western, Christian civilization without acting as canon fodder in the neo-cons “project.”
As I see it, it is possible to contain the Islamic threat. This can be done in part through dialogue with Muslims themselves, who do not want to be infected by the more toxic elements of our culture. An intelligent foreign policy, immigration control, and a political order reflecting our traditional culture are all needed, and are all antithetical to the neo-con agenda.