Wednesday, March 17, 2004

Terrorism as head cold: The fundamental differences between our approach and the Euro-weenies' approach to terrorism is, as Eno has delved into below somewhat, caused in part by what each side views the cause to be.

The Euro-weenies (hereinafter the "EUW" or ewwww) think that poverty, disenfranchisement and (again to borrow from Eno) the price of goat cheese cause terrorism. There is a hint of truth in that concept because if everyone was living it up in Monaco, it would be hard to find someone willing to strap on a satchel of C-4. But I'd suggest that poverty and its cousins only make it easier for the message to spread; they're not the cause itself. We view terrorism as being spawned by radical hardliners who only want power for themselves, but they dress it up in tones of nationalism and religious fervor, or they just blame it on the jews.

So, EUW thinks that if they play nice, give away more free healthcare, and subsidize labor, farms and exports, oh and turn their head away from every bit of terrorism that occurs elsewhere, then they'll have solved the problem, or in any event, be left alone from making the hard decisions.

But, if we compare today's terrorists to the Nazis (and there's no good reason not to), we see that while the messenger is buying into the message, the author is only buying more Mercedes or bad art. Meaning the creator of terrorism only cares about himself and his own skin; not the so-called jihad.

Terrorism is the disease, everything else is just a carrier or a symptom. So, to get rid of the disease, you don't focus on anything else other than destroying the genetic make-up of the pathogen so that it can't spread and eventually withers away. While any good doctor must treat symptoms to alleviate the pain, he or she knows that it's just a temporary fix. The Spaniards have chosen Advil over an antibotic. They figure if the fever and aches go away for a few hours, then they must be all better. What they fail to realize is that they have the Plague, and those black boils developing under their own arms are about to kill them - perversely and sadly - again.

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