Well, I guess I would make a good Dalek.
I consider "the war on terror" a misnomer, for the reasons I gave
earlier. But if its "premise" is that there is a difference between
regular warfare and the ideological terrorism of the jihadists, then I
don't reject that premise, which seems commonsensical to me. The
jihadists are engaged, for reasons that are essentially their own, in
ideological struggle against us and indeed against much of the Muslim
world; and we are perforce caught up in that engagement, interpellated
by it, called to respond.
We have not responded particularly intelligently, or with great moral
or practical self-awareness, and we have done and are doing some foul
things as part of our response (which at times is more like a
reaction, a conditioned reflex: the military-industrial complex as
somnambulant serial killer). But while we can and should stop doing
some of the fouler things we do, we can't actually stop responding, go
back to sleep and pretend the bombs were meant for someone else. We
have many things to be ashamed of; but the terrorist bombs are not our
long-overdue punishment for those things; and we shouldn't let our
desire for punishment overwhelm our instinct for self-preservation.
Dominic
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