You're an enlightened world citizen. Your T-shirt says "9/11 was an inside job." You're pretty sure we're living in a fascist state, that President Bush taps the Dixie Chicks' phones, Christian abortion clinic bombers outnumber jihadis, and the war on "terror" is a distraction from the real threats: carbon emissions and Pat Robertson. Then you learn that 17 people were arrested in a terrorist bomb plot. How do you process the information? Let's take it step by step.
Gosh, that's horrible, you think. But no — that's what they WANT you to feel. Recall the prime directive: Question Authority (unless he's a college professor). The plotters must have been impoverished olive farmers radicalized by the removal of Saddam Hussein. Why, if someone came in and toppled your president, you'd go to their country and … well, you'd thank them. Unless they did it for the wrong reasons! Then you'd blow something up. Like an SUV dealership. At night. Anyway, you understand; you care a lot about Iraqis these days. You think about Iraq more than China, to be honest, but it's not as if you'll scrape off your "Free Tibet" bumper sticker — unless it's to make room for "Free Darfur." Or "Hands Off Darfur," depending.
Believe it or not it gets better from there.
I can’t believe you linked this. What bunk. Congrats on buying the neoconservative non-sequitor line hook line and sinker. Hate to break it to you, but the liberal “nation building” track record keeps getting worse by the day. Witness the recent events in Somalia. How’s that nation building project going? Was that worth the American lives lost and money spent?
How many BILLIONS of our grandchildren’s taxes are you willing to spend on foreign countries? You seem so worried about illiegal immigrants, yet you’re willing to spend two+ billion a week on Iraqis. Odd.
Jim
Jim,
Do you not see the disconnect Lileks is pointing out?