Us Versus Them

With the Obama Administration reaching into the intelligence community and pulling out images and documents in an effort to attack not terrorist acts (or man caused disasters), nor to fight the war on terror (or  Overseas Contingency Operations), but to attack the previous administration and attempt to smear their efforts.

Let us understand one thing without any lack in clarity:  If someone or some group wants to kill you you must take them at their word and kill them first.    If you are entrusted with the care and responsibility to protect someone or some group of people and they are targets to die, then you once again must take the aggressors at their words and kill them first.   If you can not accept this responsibility or feel that taking lesser steps is a worthy endeavor then you are not fit to have the responsibility.

The current administration wants the world to think that it is so nuanced and sensitive to the ways of the world — unlike that last administration — that if we all sit down and talk about it we can find some common ground.  ‘It’ can be anything from nuclear weaponry to soothing the troubled minds of those who wish to destroy our society, culture, and country.  This administration is as foolish as it is bold.

What the administration fails to understand, or decides to ignore, is that there is a cultural element to their actions.  Those who want us eliminated are not doing it because we looked at them sideways, it is because they do not like us at the very core of our being.   This can not be changed by talking, hand shakes, and smiles.   Our culture and by commercialism, our products, end up heading into their culture and this is something many of them will not tolerate.  Let us look at this from the perspective of a moderate, yet relatively conservative member of their society.   We’ll use Afghanistan as the backdrop, though several other nations / cultures could apply, but since that is where al-Qaida found friends in the Taliban, it works well for this example.

So we have a moderate, yet relatively conservative member of any of the various groups in Afghanistan who sees Western culture and particularity American culture seeping into his society.   He sees the blue jeans, T-Shirts, baseball caps, and other non-traditional clothing and accessories coming in and being worn by children, teens, and young adults.  He looks around and also hears American music – loud and noisy to him – and American mannerisms making their their way into the streets and worse yet, homes of all these people.   He sees Hollywood in American movies with all the sex and drugs, the way women are portrayed, the way men are portrayed, and it is disturbing to him. He sees that this own values and beliefs are being marginalized by his own society and his own people.  The same lack of respects for elders and strangers, and even family members he sees in American culture is now beginning to stick in Afghanistan and it is far too much to take.

For the sake of understanding, let us reverse the situation for Western societies and Western culture.  In the midst of our lives a different culture’s elements seeping into our lives without warning or understanding.   Movies, horrible musicals, are on the big screen with women and men all wearing clothing foreign to us, and behaving far too politely for common conversation where asking how one is doing and how one’s family is doing actually is a question where the response matters — unlike here where answering, “How are you?” is practically asking for a place on the shrinks couch, because most people do not care.  In this other culture, if you do not respond honestly, and ask the same in return you are now looked upon as some sort of rude, uncivilized, non-caring cur who is unfit for further conversation.

This affects the way we do business, and in a room with several people, this can make meetings go on longer and longer without any business being done.   This is irksome, but most of us deal with the change in culture and try to make the best of it.  In that same business room, most all of the people (women and men) are wearing different clothing now, the kind of clothing found in Afghanistan and that region, and some women are even wearing full burqas.  Because you still wear a suit and tie, or business casual, you can hear side conversations about this and the looks on some of the peoples’ faces makes it seem like you’re out of touch and even that you are slowing down progress to a better tomorrow.  You’re not with the times anymore.

Churches are closed, and eventually those practicing religions other than Islam are discriminated against, and some even beaten by those more ‘excitable’ types who are tired of people following an obviously wrong religion.   All images of women portraying them as sex objects and otherwise degrading ways have been eliminated and those still holding on to those images are being punished severely.  The local high school stadium is used for a venue to view all the capital punishment cases – which now include adultry (especially if the female seduced the male) drug sellers, some drug users, practitioners of witchcraft (you didn’t even know these people existed), and those who have blasphemed Allah.

Pressure has turned to threats from neighbors, co-workers, and even some family members because your wife, nor daughter(s) are wearing the correct attire for this new society and your youngest daughter even seems to want to wear it all voluntarily and asks that you marry her off to a man who can provide for her, but to make sure he isn’t overly abusive if she makes a mistake.  She asks this very politely to you, almost cringing because of the nature of your request.

Eventually you can not take it anymore  — your world has changed and so have too many people you know and love.  This is not the best way for society, this is craziness.   You find a group of people with similar thoughts – those who wish to remove such influences from their lives and society as well.  Protesting results in prison or death in the stadiums, so when you act the actions must be severe and beyond question.   At first you only provide material support and let them meet once in a while in your garage, but this is not getting any results.

Now your children all wear this clothing, have gotten rid of all your CDs, tapes, and records of rock and roll, rap, and any other offensive material that you ‘forgot’ to turn in.  Your frustration builds as you see your daughters fumbling around in burqas, your son turning into a religious zealot who hears nothing in way of contrary ideas and even turns in those for professing them.  Your world is may be too far gone to get back, but you must try.   This can not continue.  And so you do what you feel you must do…

Now let us go back to Afghanistan’s situation and take a look again at how they see us treating our wives, sisters, and daughters — they are objectified, there are places where prostitution is legal, women are called ‘bitches and hos’, and women are forced to work their entire lives in order to provide for their family.  They see drug abuse, the effects on the family and society, they see our problems with the border of Mexico with drugs and cringe.   They see Hollywood pushing movies without substance — movies about dysfunctional families, movies making jokes about the ills of society, not to mention purely pornographic movies where others’ sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, expose themselves in disgusting way all for the camera to see.   How are these things good for the family?   Do Western cultures even care about their own families?  Billboards of practically naked women trying to sell alcohol?   Does anyone really aspire to have that as their future?   Western society has failed in their eyes because the family is of no importance.

Abortion, the killing of the newest members of the family, divorce for no real reason other than becoming bored with each other, and so many other ideas that are common in our society are disgusting to theirs.  Religious views where people do not agree and even question the words in the holy books?   This can not be a good sign.  Homosexuality on display for all to see?   Never.

This is the picture they have.    It is as disturbing to them as the previous picture is to us.   I do not have a daughter, but if I did there is no way she will ever be forced to wear a burqa.  There is no way she’ll ever have to attend an inferior school and then drop out to be married off to someone she doesn’t know and could be two, three or even four times her age.  I will fight those who try to make that happen, and I’ll do anything to make it so she does not have to live in that world.  Wouldn’t most fathers?  Wouldn’t most mothers? Wouldn’t most brothers?

With this understanding of yourself and how you feel about your own family and close friends, and what you would do for them, why is it so hard to see that another culture, quite different from ours but still its own, would also feel the same about change?   This is not a rant about cultural relativism – an idea I find idiotic, this is about understanding that while we appreciate our own culture and ways of living, other feel the same about their own to the point that they feel they have no choice but to take matters into their own hands.

Thus, it does not matter if you call them terrorists, insurgents, freedom-fighters, or anything else.  They want to destroy me and my way of life, they have stated as much and they have even hit us on our soil, and if you look at it as a cultural assault, then you should include London 7/7 bombings, and the 3/11 Madrid bombings as hitting our soil.  They want to remove our direct and indirect ability to influence their society by any means possible.  These people will not stop to talk to us, unless it benefits them to do so.  Would you stop to talk to those who are changing your society so that they can still change it?   There is no way to stop people from importing American culture.  It is found everywhere in the world to a greater or lesser degree.  Since they can not stop the influence they can only stop the originators: US.   You and me.  We are targets.

President Obama does not understand this, or he chooses to ignore this.   Either way, this is the situation and there is only one group who will win.   This will not be won over night, but we can do what it takes to make certain we do not lose overnight.   The President needs to honor his duty and responsibility to keep Americans alive.  One good way is to eliminate those who have the desire, the will, the determination, and the resolve to kill us.  It is a sign of weakness to negotiate with someone who says they will kill you.   It shows that you are not willing to take action first.

There is a well-known saying that goes something like, “On defense you only need to be wrong once to feel the effects, on offense you can afford to be wrong with much less of an adverse  effect.”

In this battle it is us versus them, our ideas versus theirs, our culture versus theirs, our lives versus theirs.  Where do you stand when it comes to protecting your family, your close friends, your country?  Where does the enemy?   Where does the President?