[Politics] Please stop calling it a 'War.' We're going to lose if you don't.

[rustycoon]

"You know there's nothing to fear but fear itself... Yeah. That's called recursion, and that would lead to inifinite fear... so... thank you."
-Ze Frank, "The Show - Couldabin (02-22-07)In many ways, the terrorists have already won - not that they had to work that hard for it. We were only too happy to hand them the victory

Comments

[maniakes]

Saddam Hussein was reduced to the Unabomber - Ted Kaczynski - a nutcase hiding in the sticks. Sure, the terrorism by his supporters is frightening. Hence, its name, 'terrorism.' Killing innocent people by surprise is not called 'a thousand points of light.' But, as frightening as terrorism is, it's the weapon of losers. The minute somebody sets off a suicide bomb, you can be sure that person doesn't have 'career prospects.' And no matter how horrendous a terrorist attack is, it's still conducted by losers. Winners don't need to hijack airplanes. Winners have an Air Force.
-- P.J. O'Rourke, 2004

[rustycoon]

Okay, I'm not going to concede that your quote is better than mine, but it is clearly a contender for the title. :)

[swashbucklr]

"Winners don't use drugs."

-Every Arcade Game Made in the Early Nineties

[maniakes]

To be fair, that was before the whole baseball steroids kerfuffle.

[gaudior]

this is civillians killing civillians and to call that war is tantamount to drafting the entire population of the United States and making us legitimate targets.

Nice. Yes.

Ze Frank makes a good point about our lack of specificity in talking about terrorism. The September 11th bombing becomes not about the deaths of four thousand people (number of people who die in car crashes every year: about forty thousand), but becomes the representation of Enemies and Other and Death and Unpredictability. And those things are both terrifying and omnipresent.

It's useful for people to have concrete images to represent huge archetypal forces. But using this particular image-- fundamentalist Islamic terrorists-- is quite getting in the way of us actually dealing with the real problem.

[juldea]

Er... why don't I have you friended?
Fixed.

[rustycoon]

A gross oversight. I'm guessing it has something to do with your depicted head-garb.

[juldea]

Attributing an oversight to it would indicate that wearing a unicorn head on one's head isn't normal behavior. Is that really what you're wanting to say?

[rustycoon]

Why do I suddenly feel compelled to say, "I have no recollection of those events, Senator" ?