Hat tip to Publius Endures (PE) for this little expose' of the mind of a Modern Conservative.
The article he links to is from Michelle Malkin and written by "See-Dubya".
Says Mark at PE: (emphasis mine)
(See-Dubya) demonstrates how modern conservatism is ultimately more about finding things for the government to do than it is about limiting the size of government. In the post, he says that it is a "fair question" of what our counter-terrorism strategy should be "when" we defeat al-Qaeda. One would think that once the biggest threat (and entire raison d'etre for most of the government's counter-terrorism expansions) was eliminated, the appropriate conservative response would be to, quite simply, eliminate those elements of the government.
But that is not what See-dubya thinks. Instead it would appear that the appropriate conservative reaction to beating al-Qaeda, rather than being to decrease the size of government, is instead to "look[] beyond the end of Al Qaeda and consider[] what fresh horror radical Islam may try to release upon the world. " In other words: once we've beaten the threat of al-Qaeda, the next step ought to be to convert our current unofficial war on Islam into an official war on Islam. I'm sure that won't do ANYTHING to push more people into terrorism and radicalism.
Neo-conservatism is increasingly nothing more than a giant self-fulfilling prophecy.
**UPDATE** I forgot to mention this little nugget from See-dubya's post:
"Administrating the peace is every bit as important as winning the war, as the history of a badly drawn peace after WWI shows."
Of course, the fact that the reason the peace after WWI was so badly drawn arose out of a desire to punish the Central Powers as much as possible (just as See-dubya wants to punish Islam as much as possible) seems to have escaped his memory.
Well, There's really nothing I disagree with from Mark here.
Consider this as well from See-Dubya:
I think crippling Al Qaeda is like crippling an undetectable, undeterrable, nearly untraceable nuclear/chem/bio missile launcher aimed at the West, or Israel. By finishing them off, the nuclear tension in the region might be taken down a notch.
Of course, there are many other groups like Hezbollah and Hamas that can move in and take their place…
Al Qaeda’s support flows from deep ideological springs; unless they can be stanched something new will take its place.
Hmmm. I also think that in the process of TRYING to cripple Al Qaeda we create many undetectable, undeterrable (at least doing it See-Dubya's way) and nearly untraceable new springs that take the place of and reinforce the cause of the very ideology that See-Dubya seems to think we can bash out of existence....a self-fulfilling prophecy indeed! Why stop there? We may be onto something here....(snark)
__________________________
There is no end
to the war on terror. First, because terror is a tactic, and people who used to embrace terror can change their ways (e.g., Northern Ireland) and, of course, people who used to protest peacefully can pick up terror. Second, because in a war against terrorists once we cripple one group another will take its place. So if we insist on conducting a war on terror we do have to realize it won't end with the defeat of al Qaeda.
That said, I think you're much more right than See-Dubya, judging by the evidence so far from Iraq. The underlying problem isn't "Islam" and it's a bit ridiculous to suppose that groups like Hezbollah (Shiite, focused on gaining influence in Lebanon) and Hamas (Sunni, focused on gaining influence in Palestine) are somehow going to move into the same ideological and geo-political sphere occupied by Al Qaeda. Certainly there will be backlash from clumsy attempts to transform the Middle East, particularly if it appears we are indeed targeting Islam in general.
And the cost from this war on terror to our own liberties and moral standards here in America is high
. Conservatives who ought to be appalled, on ideological grounds, at the growth in executive power are instead cheerleading it as necessary to "win" the war.
Thank goodness they'll change their minds as soon as a Dem becomes President, I guess =/
__________________________Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
Shift focus from the War against Terror...
to the War on Poverty or the War on Drugs or the War on Hippies [too bad that last one isn't a real war]
__________________________In our society, people are rewarded for pretending to be certain about things they're clearly not certain about. -- Sam Harris,
First one sounds good to me
if we want an endless challenge.
__________________________Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
or all of them
;)