By Edwin Cooney
Without
in any way diminishing the tragedy experienced by Parisians on November 13th,
it seems to me that even worse damage may be overtaking the American people from
within their body politic.
Everyone
from President Obama on down to Dr. Carson and Donald Trump realizes that
ISIS’s most powerful weapons aren’t its guns or its bombs, but the fear
generated by the shock value of its unconventional methods of both individual and
mass murder. Nevertheless, President
Obama and all those would-be presidents appear to be primarily occupied
justifying their records and positions.
Just
a day or so before ISIS struck in Paris killing about 130 people, President
Obama had issued a statement asserting that ISIS was being considerably
contained. Then came the shooting and
the bomb-throwing that appeared to make newspaper accounts of the president’s
published assessment worthy of little more than the paper in which to wrap last
night’s garbage. As if that wasn’t bad
enough, GOP presidential candidates seem to be more interested in
sensationalizing the crisis for their collective benefit rather than in
sufficiently reassuring the American people.
The
truth is that ISIS in all its savagery is no threat whatsoever to America’s
national sovereignty. If ISIS’s ultimate
goal is the creation of a worldwide Islamic Caliphate sufficiently powerful and
substantial enough to reign over humankind, it isn’t even close to being close
to its objective. As President Harry
Truman once observed, “Any fool can go out and start a war” and at this point
that’s all that ISIS has accomplished.
As outrageous as November 13th’s attack on Paris was, not an inch of
ground was gained. In fact, life has become more precarious for radical Islam
now that both Russia and France have joined the fight against ISIS.
The
greatest danger we in America face is the fear factor emanating from ISIS. Then, of course, there’s the belief and even
the expectation on the part of millions of American voters that our amassed collective
righteous anger will constitute ISIS’s demise.
The
demise of ISIS already exists. First,
ISIS exists solely for the glorification of a mere sect of world Islam. Second, from what I’ve read, beyond its
radicalism, it isn’t about the care of the relatively few people over whom it
governs. Third, its primary resource,
oil, is invariably vulnerable to air attack. Therefore, reliance on oil is
problematic at best. Finally, since its
purpose and nature is no more than self-preservation, it is essentially no more
than a gang of international criminals.
The
nature of effective government is the nurture of people. Say what you want about Nazi Germany, Soviet
Russia, Red China or modern Iran, they were and are governments accountable in
large part to a constituency that, at least to some extent, justified a
purposeful existence.
Although
ISIS is indeed scary, the fear it causes is misleading because that fright is
an end in itself. The attack on Paris
was not contrary to President Obama’s pre-attack analysis. ISIS wasn’t able to attack Paris because it had
become more formidable. An attack is
merely a “hit and run,” not an occupation.
The truth is that ISIS is in way over its head when it comes to
international affairs.
Since
prosperity, comfort, and personal safety are at the basis of every American politician’s
promise, prosperous, fertile and free America is especially vulnerable to the
uncouth and uncivilized threats and misdeeds of international criminality. Regrettably, there is historic precedence for
the panic that we’ve heard in recent days from political hopefuls and state
governors.
During
World War I, a group of citizens roasted alive a dachshund on a spit to demonstrate
its outrage against Kaiser Wilhelm’s Prussian militarism. We interned the Japanese during World War II, an
act that was driven by a combination of panic and racism. Just a mere decade ago, the French were vilified
almost daily by some of the very political groups that are today suggesting
that a new generation of young people should be sent overseas to avenge the
Paris terrorist attack. Remember
“Freedom Fries?”
Almost
sixty years have passed since the late, great Edward R. Murrow eulogized the
British for the way they conducted themselves under the nightly German
bombardment during the Second World War.
“…I am persuaded that
the most important
thing that happened in Britain was that this nation chose to win or lose this war under the established rules of parliamentary procedure,”
asserted Murrow. “It feared Nazism but did not choose to imitate it. The government was given
dictatorial power but it was used with restraint and the House of Commons was
ever vigilant. Do you remember,” Murrow continued, “that while London was being
bombed in the daylight, Parliament devoted two days discussing the conditions
under which enemy aliens were detained on the Isle of Man? Though Britain fell
there were to be no concentration camps here!”
In
recent days, state governors, some of them the sons of immigrants who escaped
European tyranny, have vilified refugees fleeing tyranny, called for the
registration of American Muslims, and questioned the courage and patriotism of America’s
Commander-in-Chief. What none of them
can do is be as effective as President Obama’s least effective response until
one of them replaces him on January 20th, 2017.
Back
in 1966, Secretary of State Dean Rusk asserted that one of the factors
Americans must be ever mindful of is its own strength. He put it this way: “America is too powerful
a nation to be infuriated.” Dean Rusk
was right then and he’s right now. We
can either act like Harry Truman’s fool who starts a war or we can be Dean Rusk’s
practitioner of wisdom and restraint and be determined enough to await the time
when the world’s biggest fools do what we all do naturally: make a serious
mistake.
One
of Ed Murrow’s favorite words in times of uncertainty or crisis was
“steady.” He reminded us that this was a
term we used to calm a powerful horse, as well as to ease an anxious mind. Let us insist that our fears feed and
energize our wisdom rather than our uncertainty or our tendency toward panic!
Finally,
let us remember that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself!”
I’m
not sure who I heard make that assertion, but I think it was the gentleman who lifted
America to its feet during the Great Depression of the 1930s as he sat in his
wheelchair!
RESPECTFULLY
SUBMITTED,
EDWIN
COONEY
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