How would we react part 2
It looks like we found out that our reaction to terrorists is pretty much the same as the Russian reaction.
Here's the pattern in outline form:
1. Horrible, indescribable terrorist attack happens.
2. National and international feeling of unity around the tragedy builds.
3. National leader in country where the attack occurred uses national sense of unity to push a policy that that has nothing to do with terrorism by saying the policy is necessary to fight terrorism.
Valdmir Putin has announced his plan for making Russia safer from the Chechen terrorists and for preventing another school hostage taking. He has proposed changing how local governors and parliamentary representatives are selected. Now, local governors are elected by the local populace. Putin wants to change that system - he will appoint local governors who will then be approved by local councils. In other words, no one could be a regional governor in Russia unless Putin selected him or her. He would also change the parliamentary election system. Now, half the seats in the lower house of parliament in Russia are directly elected in local elections - like our House of Representatives. Putin would change that to eliminate all local elections of parliamentary members. Local people could only vote for a party, not a person. Then the party would select who the representatives would be.
Now you might be reading this and wondering what these changes would do to stop terrorists from taking a school hostage. You are probably thinking, "I see how they will make Putin more powerful by eliminating any regional opposition to his political party. But how does that make Russia safer?" And of course, it doesn't. Putin claims it will strengthen the country by consolidating control. Does that make sense to you? Do you think the Chechen separatist extremists will now throw down their arms and forsake violence because the local governor in the town where they intended to kill schoolkids was selected by Putin directly instead of being locally elected?
Where did he get such a crazy plan, and what makes him think it will work? Well, it worked in the U.S. of A. for good ole Dubya. In the aftermath of 9/11, Bush pushed through his plan of invading Iraq. Iraq, one of the few countries in the middle east where none of the hijackers were from, and which had no ties to any terrorist organizations. Now, I'm not trying to argue Saddam Hussein is a great guy, but his government was a target of al Quaida because it was secular. There is no connection between Iraq and terrorism. (As a sidenote, I heard administration officials make the claim that there is a terrorist connection because there was an al Quiada cell in one of the cities in Iraq before the war that is giving us so much trouble now. There were also al Quaida terrorists cells operating in San Diego before 9/11. Does that make the U.S. a partner in terror? Or just California?) But Bush claimed then and still claims his war in Iraq is part of the global war or terrorism. Just like Putin claims his power grab is part of his country's war on terrorism.
Here's the pattern in outline form:
1. Horrible, indescribable terrorist attack happens.
2. National and international feeling of unity around the tragedy builds.
3. National leader in country where the attack occurred uses national sense of unity to push a policy that that has nothing to do with terrorism by saying the policy is necessary to fight terrorism.
Valdmir Putin has announced his plan for making Russia safer from the Chechen terrorists and for preventing another school hostage taking. He has proposed changing how local governors and parliamentary representatives are selected. Now, local governors are elected by the local populace. Putin wants to change that system - he will appoint local governors who will then be approved by local councils. In other words, no one could be a regional governor in Russia unless Putin selected him or her. He would also change the parliamentary election system. Now, half the seats in the lower house of parliament in Russia are directly elected in local elections - like our House of Representatives. Putin would change that to eliminate all local elections of parliamentary members. Local people could only vote for a party, not a person. Then the party would select who the representatives would be.
Now you might be reading this and wondering what these changes would do to stop terrorists from taking a school hostage. You are probably thinking, "I see how they will make Putin more powerful by eliminating any regional opposition to his political party. But how does that make Russia safer?" And of course, it doesn't. Putin claims it will strengthen the country by consolidating control. Does that make sense to you? Do you think the Chechen separatist extremists will now throw down their arms and forsake violence because the local governor in the town where they intended to kill schoolkids was selected by Putin directly instead of being locally elected?
Where did he get such a crazy plan, and what makes him think it will work? Well, it worked in the U.S. of A. for good ole Dubya. In the aftermath of 9/11, Bush pushed through his plan of invading Iraq. Iraq, one of the few countries in the middle east where none of the hijackers were from, and which had no ties to any terrorist organizations. Now, I'm not trying to argue Saddam Hussein is a great guy, but his government was a target of al Quaida because it was secular. There is no connection between Iraq and terrorism. (As a sidenote, I heard administration officials make the claim that there is a terrorist connection because there was an al Quiada cell in one of the cities in Iraq before the war that is giving us so much trouble now. There were also al Quaida terrorists cells operating in San Diego before 9/11. Does that make the U.S. a partner in terror? Or just California?) But Bush claimed then and still claims his war in Iraq is part of the global war or terrorism. Just like Putin claims his power grab is part of his country's war on terrorism.
posted by Charles S. Russell at 9:16 AM
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