I can remember, during the 2004 presidential campaign, vice president Dick Cheney describing Democratic candidate John Kerry’s positions on the war on terrorism as ‘naive and dangerous’.  This seemed to have some weight back then, due to the propagandistic use of 9/11 and the shameful smear campaign aimed at the veteran of the Vietnam war turned dissenter.  But nowadays people in general don’t seem to be buying what no informed and reasonable person ever has, namely that the Bush administration has a good plan for Iraq.  In fact, one could argue that if ever there was a time to describe a plan and a position or set of positions as ‘naive and dangerous’, that time is now with respect to this administration.  Take a recent statement from the president’s speech:

On one side are those who believe in freedom and moderation. On the other side are extremists who kill the innocent and have declared their intention to destroy our way of life.

Yes indeed, that is quite a nuanced position our dear leader has developed.  Well, for those of us who tend to recognize the value of nuance and sophistication in acheiving an accurate and useful representation of political realities, more needs to be said.  For instance, the U.S. invasion has killed thousands of “the innocent”, hasn’t it?  And talk of the “axis of evil”, “shock and awe”, etc., is that really moderate?  And detention without charges, extraordinary rendition, and the horrors of Guantanamo Bay and other (probably more horrendous) “secret prisons”, as well as domestic ‘eavesdropping’ and accessing bank records…is that “freedom”?  And those of us with a penchant for reading and analyzing data and international research might object that there is more to the phenomenon of terrorism than “hatred of freedom” or a strange, arbitrary desire to “destroy our way of life”.  Perhaps this is all ‘just technical’, though.  In reality it’s good vs. evil, obviously.  We are good, they are evil.  Sure, we played a part in funding and training early ‘Islamic militants’.  Sure, we torture people being held without charges regularly.  But…

I can’t go on with the sarcasm; it would be funny if it weren’t about slaughtering people, defying international law, and perhaps further increasing the threat of an attack on the United States.  The naivety has always been obvious, and the danger is real.  ‘Naive and dangerous’ indeed.

- Peter Broady 

Peter Broady is a regular guy from Wasilla, Alaska, who reads and writes when he gets the chance.  He can be contacted at pbroady@gmail.com or at his current website, http://internationalnv.blogspot.com/