the score? extremists 5 - peace and security 0

President Bush has handed terrorists their victory.

1) They wanted to stand face to face with world leaders; Bush elevated them from international criminals to the status of equals in war.

2) They wanted to provoke U.S. military intervention and repression in Muslim countries; Bush gave them wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as U.S.-sponsored torture.

3) They wanted the president to create the conditions for recruiting and building their global network; Bush obliged.

4) They wanted to weaken the U.S. in a costly war of attrition; President Bush went to war on their battleground on their terms.

5) They wanted to bankrupt the U.S.economy and starve it of oil; Bush's energy strategy, which only increases U.S. dependence on foreign oil, helps them to do this. (Though the silver lining is that the administration's policies drive oil prices up further, which may reduce demand in the long run.)

As Friends Committee on National Legislation said well four years ago, "terrorism is not a person, a place, or a thing. We cannot blast it out of this world. Violent retaliation by the U.S. will sow more seeds of hatred and reap a new harvest of terror."

Then again, fear and terror are are clearly part of the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld agenda. This climate helped Republicans in the 2002 and 2004 elections. And it continues to provide the rationale for our imperial foreign policy and the gutting of democracy here at home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In one of my dreamier states, I wonder what it would be like to shape foreign and domestic policy on love rather than fear?

But for an intermediary step to a love-embued foreign policy, the Interational Relations Center in Silver City, New Mexico has developed a wonderful Good Global Neighbor Initiative that incorporates the best of American values. It wouldn't hurt to exercise those old values a bit, eh?!

See Good Global Neighbor Initiative at http://ggn.irc-online.org

--