Worst. Threat. Ever?

October 22, 2007

In last night’s debate, Mike Huckabee, trying to explain why Hillary Clinton, under no circumstances, should even be considered for the presidency, said her election would mean “our military loses its morale, and I’m not sure we’ll have the courage and the will and the resolve to fight the greatest threat this country’s ever faced in Islamofascism.”

David Horowitz and his cohorts, while leaving Hillary out of it, announced the kick-off of “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week” today, arguing that the little endeavor is absolutely necessary because the nation faces “the greatest danger Americans have ever confronted.”

Mitt Romney came close to making the same argument in one of his new TV ads, explaining, “It’s this century’s nightmare, Jihadism — violent radical Islamic fundamentalism. Their goal is to unite the world under a single Jihadist caliphate. To do that, they must collapse freedom-loving nations like us.”

Oddly enough, it’s fairly unusual in the major media right now to hear anyone responding to these claims by saying, “What are these guys talking about?”

The “greatest threat” and the “greatest danger” in the history of the United States? Seriously? Worse than World War II? Worse than the Cold War, when the Soviet Union had enough nuclear missiles pointed at U.S. soil to obliterate the country?

It’s bizarre, but I think there are a few angles worth considering here.

First, it’s striking that these same far-right voices rarely seem to explore how Western Civilization is supposed to defeat the Most Dangerous Enemy Ever. Apparently, it has something to do with staying in the middle of Iraq’s civil war, and at the same time, listening to Americans’ phone calls without warrants.

Second, it gets back to a point we recently talked about: there are some portions of the conservative movement that are genuinely convinced that we’re this close to a global Islamic theocracy. It’s utterly absurd — as Matt Yglesias put it, “The idea that we should be laying awake at night afraid that a group of at most several thousand people who control almost no territory or valuable military equipment might establish a universal caliphate or ‘collapse freedom loving nations like us’ is ridiculous.”

And third, just once I’d like to hear someone who genuinely believes we’re facing our Most Dangerous Enemy Ever recommend a response equivalent to the challenge. Bush, for example, argued earlier this year that we are now fighting “to defend our liberty, our freedom and our way of life.”

If that’s true, and I really doubt that it is, why not declare a draft and rally the nation behind the great cause? If western civilization and our very way of life is in jeopardy, why just tell people to shop more?

Maybe because this isn’t the “greatest threat this country’s ever faced”?

This is nonsense…15 guys (or whatever) with box cutters on three airplanes in 2001 triggered this tsunami of insanity???

Remember the hard right in this country is all about the hatin’…they need to demonize so that they may empower their ruling classes…they need an enemy so we may stay forever at war…

Bush would have been quite content to pursue Cold War II against the Russkies and Chinese if Al Qaeda hadn’t been waiting handily in the wings instead…

  • Second, it gets back to a point we recently talked about: there are some portions of the conservative movement are genuinely convinced that we’re this close to a global Islamic theocracy.

    Yep. Just like they were (and to some extent still are) convinced the Red/Yellow/Brown/Jewish/Catholic perils were going to overwhelm lily white America, kill the men and rape the women. The fact that some people who share a label launched a succesful attack on US soil was a dream come true for these creeps. “At last a reason to wet our pants in public!”

    They don’t even realize what they’re saying about the abilities of the US military to fend off an invasion. I guess it is all right to insult the troops if you’re having a code yellow moment.

    Maybe because this isn’t the “greatest threat this country’s ever faced”?

    Goodness, are you suggesting all of this shrieking is just empty rhetoric?

  • You’d think that with America facing an existential threat and all, someone would come up a with a clear four or five point plan to win this titanic struggle. I’m no historian but, I never met anyone who lived through WWII who said that shopping was the key to victory. They did, on the other hand, mention shared sacrifice, war taxes and the drafting of troops.

  • It’s not worth raising our taxes just a smidge to fight the greatest threat we’ve ever faced?
    Yeah, I didn’t think so…

  • It’s amazing to me how much the fundamentalist religious right in this country actually has in common with the “Jihadists”. Repression of women, distrust of science, belief in an angry off-planet God who wants to judge our corrupt sensuous culture, just to name a few..In order to understand why these guys are so theatened, you need to see the level of projection they are doing here. They know how absolutely they themselves want God to destroy the wicked, so it is very easy for them to be actually spooked shitless about the fanatical Muslems. The reality is, both of there worldviews are headed for the dustbin of history sooner or later.

    Peace

  • As long as you can keep people focused on and imagining the worst, the easier it is to pass off your own breaches of trust as meaningless – what’s a little fraud or abuse of power or election fraud when SOMEONE’S TRYING TO KILL US??? I think the administration can see the finish line and believes if it can just get there, maybe they can walk away without Waxman or Conyers or Leahy laying a glove on them, so threatening to go to war against Iran is just insurance to make sure we remain distracted.

    Will that work? For some, it always works. The problem is, of course, with the rest of the country, from whom the fog of fear has lifted, and as the mist clears, we can now not only see what has been going on in the name of national security, but we can see what a good ruse it was.

    Even so, the WH sees the need to get out the fog machine again and see if it still works, only this time, they have to make the threat bigger and scarier than before.

    I’m not suggesting that we should pretend there is no threat to national security, but I think most people have reached the point where they see the folly of a foreign policy that seems to be rooted in pre-emptive war.

  • We are fighting “to defend our liberty, our freedom and our way of life”, but we can’t raise taxes or start a draft. This actually makes perfect sense.

    Obviously it’s the same shit we’ve seen since John J. DiIulio Jr. told us about their key strategy driver.

    “What you’ve got is everything–and I mean everything–being run by the political arm. It’s the reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis.”

    Everything fits together when you know what drives those idiots. They think it’s good politics, and I hate to say it but our IDIOTIC MEDIA has insured that they’re right. If it wasn’t for the way Republicans (and Lieberman) have gotten away with their ridiculous hyping of the Islamofascism bogeyman, they’d have been out of office back in 2004.


  • This is nonsense…15 guys (or whatever) with box cutters on three airplanes in 2001 triggered this tsunami of insanity???

    See?!? You libruls underestimate the threat we face! It was 19 hijackers! 19!!!

  • It’s this apparent hysteria over terrorism that makes me think this country is hopeless.

    I don’t understand what’s behind it. It’s as if it’s taken on a life of its own. Do these idiots truly believe this preposterous claim? If so, they are so delusional as to be completely unsuited for the job of president, and someone ought to start saying so before we get into bigger trouble than we are. And if not, why are they fanning the flames? What’s behind it? What’s in it for them?

    Are the Republicans this mad for power that they would so delude the American people? I find that hard to believe, that they are so depraved.

    So I’m truly baffled. I don’t get it. Terrorism has become like that monster in “Forbidden Planet.”

  • Worse than the Cold War, when the Soviet Union had enough nuclear missiles pointed at U.S. soil to obliterate the country?

    Ah, the era that gave us such masterpieces as Red Dawn, Amerika, Invasion USA (1952 and 1985), and The Day After. What we need now is a blockbuster to illustrate the dire threat of the Islamo-murderists. The movie can begin by describing its “science-FACTion” premise: “In 2008, America had the Jihado-buggerists on the run — until the election of the First Woman President. The nightmare had only begun….”

    ricardo: “15 guys (or whatever) with box cutters on three airplanes in 2001 triggered this tsunami of insanity???”

    Nineteen. Was it really so long ago?

  • There is no threat to national security but the one this administration has created.
    What I can’t believe is that after all this time and with all the evidence to the contrary why do the Republican party members keep believing this lie. Is it that they want it to be true because of some fantasy in their head like a motion picture where they are the heroes saving the world. “The nation is under attack” pales when you see it was under attack by 19 members of some oraganization without an army or weapons. Declaring war on the ME under the guise that a small group from that area might sneak a nuke into our country is just ridiculous. But the repukes just keep swallowing this line to the tune over well over 2 trillion dollars. It’s pathetic and defies rationality.
    The only terrorist I live in fear of is this president…of what he might do next.

  • ***sorry*** that last line should have said “of this president and his party…of what ‘they’ might do next”, since the republicans have decided to lock arms with this president’s policies.

  • It becomes rather comical when the Jabberwockey is warning me to beware of the Jabberwockey’s reflection in the mirror. Maywe we need to declare November as “National Reskunklican Presidential Candidate Awareness Month.” Just point to the nearest neocon, and scream “ScaryThingScaryThingScaryThing !!!”

  • Wait a minute! Isn’t the LDS goal to unite the world under itself? Else, what are all the missionaries doing? Mitt’s comment seems to be a case of “the pot calling the kettle black.?

  • Literally, this is all buzzwords, without substance. These guys are running the campaign equivalent of a vapid, special-effects laden popcorn movie.

  • I survived the Cold War and all I got was a lousy T-shirt.

    Am I hero for surviving? Some might say that. Modesty prevents me from saying so. (But not from suggesting it, of course.)

  • The right-wing honestly believes that terrorists are trying to make or get access to suitcase nukes and take out American cities one by one. Iran will join Pakistan and make it easier to do so. Thus, a battle of (for?) civilizations. Likelihood of this happening? This is where their reality leaves the rails, but I think it explains their world view.

  • The GOP has a deep love for the scary movie.

    The whole point of such films is to be scared, like a little child, and it would completely ruin the dramatic conceit if you approach it practically. Where would be the fun in suggesting practical ways of dealing with the threat? How scary would that be?

    In the mad-slasher movies, nobody suggests that they turn on all the lights, stay together, call 911, improvise weapons and watch each other’s back. As Eddie Murphy used to say, nobody just leaves when they hear the haunted house saying “Get OUT!” There wouldn’t be a movie.

    While watching a zombie movie, it would be rude and annoying to sit there and say “The zombies aren’t able to move fast, and they’re mindless. Why not build some flame-throwers, get some fast cars and burn the suckers?”

    No wonder they get so angry at us. It’s no fun to be shown your Big Scare is just stupid and silly.

  • It’s amazing to me how much the fundamentalist religious right in this country actually has in common with the “Jihadists”. — Steve in ABQ, @5

    Ah, but… We can eat pig — they cannot. We can drink ourselves rigid — they cannot. They’d take those freedoms away from us…

  • The Soviets had enough nuclear firepower to destroy every major city in the US in less than an hour. Iran is at least five years away from getting one nuclear bomb and Pakistan has some nukes but, no long range misses. This is not to belittle the possibility of Nuclear or Biological terror. But, horrible as these possibilities are, our civilization can survive them.

    We have better technology, better politics and a stronger economy than they do.

    The Islamic world in the present day, is very divided. There is no unified leadership there such as existed during the time of the Crusades.

    The bitter irony that many of those on the right seem to have to faith in the strength and resiliency of the American people or in the West as a whole.

  • Um. Perhaps these folks need to recall that this nation was ripped in two by domestic zealots who wanted to keep slaves under the rubric of ‘states rights’ with a health dose of (what else) hard right conservative religious dogma. To this day, there have never been that many Americans killed in war; even afterwords, there have been thousands of black folks who have been murdered because of the ideological descendants of the pro-slavery camp.

    Surely someone has got to point this out in the media, no

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