Barack: Talk To Us Like Grownups About Terrorism and Save Us From Ourselves

Barack Obama, who saved his presidential campaign by talking to us like grownups about race relations, could fortify America immeasurably by talking to us like grownups about terrorism.

This is something to do now. Or very soon. As a former senior official in the Department of Homeland Security wrote this month, our country is in "an unprecedented vulnerable state as it welcomes a new president and rescues a battered economy ... creating a fertile ground for a terrorist attack."

This is common sense -- a simple truth that has nothing to do with the outcome of the election. That much was obvious back in September when I wrote, "Whether this election gives us President McCain or President Obama, it seems logical to expect that terrorists will try to strike early and spectacularly in the incoming administration in a bid to provoke the new president into responses as counterproductive and repellent as those of President Bush."

Sometimes it can be hard to take in the full scope of what Bush's swaggering incompetence has wrought. While al Qaeda might have anticipated baiting us into a draining war in Afghanistan, could the terrorists possibly have dared to dream of the total non sequitur that came next: Bush using 9/11 as a pretext for pushing us into a second reputation-ruining quagmire in Iraq?

When we let shock or panic or a lust for vengeance guide us, we are a greater danger to ourselves than terrorists ever could be. Any terrorists. With any weapon. Because the bigger the terrorist attack, the greater our shock, panic, and lust for vengeance is sure to be.

I vividly remember changing my daughter's diaper on September 12, 2001. Raw with the shock of the previous day's massacres, I looked down at my sweet, oblivious nine-month-old baby and wanted to keep her safe forever. I thought of the terrorists. I thought of our huge military, our absurd abundance of nuclear weapons, and formed in my head the message Bush should send to the terrorists: Do that again and we will nuke every inch from Mecca to Morocco, from Tehran to Jakarta.

It was madness. Total madness. But I couldn't shake the thought. Like I said, the bigger the terrorist attack, the greater our shock, panic, and lust for vengeance is likely to be.

Barack Obama realizes this. Writing in The Audacity of Hope back in 2006, the future president dissected al Qaeda's plan for "winning a war from a cave."

"Osama bin Laden understands that he cannot defeat or even incapacitate the United States in a conventional war. What he and his allies can do is inflict enough pain to provoke a reaction of the sort we've seen in Iraq -- a botched and ill-advised U.S. military incursion into a Muslim country, which in turn spurs on insurgencies based on religious sentiment and nationalist pride, which in turn necessitates a lengthy and difficult U.S. occupation, which in turn leads to an escalating death toll on the part of U.S. troops and the local civilian population. All of this fans anti-American sentiment among Muslims, increases the pool of potential terrorist recruits, and prompts the American public to question not only the war but also those policies that project us into the Islamic world in the first place."

Or, as another excellent writer, William Langewiesche, said while discussing his harrowing book on the spread of nuclear weapons, "the actual explosion is not the issue, it's the reaction."

Speaking at the University of Chicago, Langewiesche argued we, as a society, don't have it in us to react to terrorism with restraint, precision, and effectiveness. That was back in 2007. It would be interesting to know if Langewiesche feels otherwise now.

I do.

I think we have it in us to react to terrorism with restraint, precision, and effectiveness. But it will take determined leadership to reshape our thinking, re-imagine our patriotism, and ready us for the disciplined task of using our vast might intelligently. The leadership we need is a president who will talk to us like grownups about terrorism. Before the next attack. Obama can be that president.

What might it sound like to have someone talk to us like grownups about terrorism, about something as ghastly as nuclear terrorism, even? It might sound something like Langewiesche did in those remarks at the University of Chicago two years ago:

"Wouldn't it be wonderful to live in a world where the United States would do the completely unrealistic and say in advance, 'If you hit us, we will take the hit. We don't want to be hit. But we'll take it and we'll not complain. We will not overdo our reaction. So we will diminish the effect of what you want to do to us. We will mourn our dead. And there will be possibly several hundred thousand. We will rebuild the city as quickly as we can and we will accept whatever level of radiation poisoning without complaint. So go to hell.'"

These aren't the sort of words that will.i.am could set to music. But they are the sort of words we need to hear. I hope we'll hear them from Barack Obama. Soon. Before the next attack. Once it comes, there will be no reasoning with us. Just like there was no reasoning with me on September 12, 2001.

We need to think ahead for once.

Comments

[wadenelson1]

Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love. MLK

[DragonFly]

I'm so happy to read this post, largely because it addresses what it would be like to be 'grown up' both as a people and a culture.

This is about having the wisdom and the guts to 'just say no' to our lizard brains in the face of ideological extremism, and to redirect terrorist strategies into a state of ever expanding impotence through a series of disciplined responses.

Such an accomplishment would really make this country 'home of the brave'.

[Luise22]

What a terrific article, and so timely. You're right, now is the perfect opportunity to begin the discussion and give experts a platform to tell Americans that the mistake was overreacting. I found in talking to Fox fans even as late as 2007 that they wouldn't even consider such an idea -- they never had to, as the MSM didn't even try to present it. But if Obama brings it up now, many in the mainstream will be willing to listen to a discussion, and the Fox people will at least know that this (not overreacting) is a widely accepted idea....

[Dr Eames]

That was really a fantastic article, thanks. If you liked Langewiesche, I recommend "Our Final Hour" by Martin Rees. Dramatic title, but very lucid in content.

[dakotawoman]

Henry,
It's history. Start with a basic world history book. Learn about how Muslim's almost conquered Europe in the Middle Ages, starting up a legacy of hatred and bigotry within the Christian world. Learn about how the Crusades of Europeans to "take back the holy land" kept hostility roiling for more centuries. Learn how the Ottomon Empire was divided up after WWI. Find out about how the Arabs, who assisted Britain, France and the USA to defeat the German's in the Middle East, were shut out of any say in the division of their own countries. See how Western nations used this hegemony to control the oil belonging to Iraq, Iran, Libya, etc. etc. See how a minority Jewish state was forced upon the majority population of Palestinians who had lived in the region for thousands of years, many of whom were Christians. Learn about how many of these Palestinians were forced from their homes, marginalized, disenfranchised and, yes, terrorized by Israel, whose biggest supporter is -- the USA..

It's in the history, which is the least favorite school subject for most Americans. And see how that has worked out for us.

[RumiSouth]

The "lesson" of 9/11 is that the world doesn't get better if we ignore it. The lesson of 11/4 is that we are still the home of the brave.

[laire]

Henry,

Its not about Muslim boys hate us its about making good decisions on foreign policy. I think the reality is our policies over years of colonization from Europe to policies from the U.S in the last 60 years or so years have hurt the Muslim world in real terms and in perceptions. I think many people in the Muslim world have an inferiority complex and instead of looking inward to what they can do to improve their societies they have decided to take it out on the West and we are the leaders of the West. I think we have to remember at one time the Muslim world where the leaders in the word in medicine, education, technology while Europe where in the dark ages. When young men don't have jobs to take care of their families they blame their leadership which many of them believe are puppets of the West. Even when the U.S. may have good intention but you kill thousands of innocent people I don't think people sit around and intellectualize what happen but blame the U.S. or the West. Its easy for groups like Ha mas and Hezbollah to take root in an society because they are on the ground with the people and provide health care and education and money to people so its easy understand why people look to them as leaders in their societies.

[Henry]

David,
Help me out here. Why is that these Muslim boys hate us so much? I mean, 9/11 was no small accomplishment, indeed, much much more sophisticated than any other attempt they are alleged to have committed. So why does this question of "why" seem to invoke such embarrassment?

[wadenelson1]

Unfortunately the reasons why violence against the United States (and her allies) began are now ancient history.

The reasons why violence CONTINUES are many, including US troops all over the Middle East, US support of unpopular regimes in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, our unconditional support of Israel, and so forth. That and revenge for everything we've done since 9-11, revenge for every civilian casualty, collateral damage, destruction of an entire society...

Nobody really wants to address the "Why" question, yet on 9-11 it was the first answer I sought. I've read, watched PBS, searched the Internet ever since trying to learn more about the "Why" in the belief that if somehow we (Americans) understood "Why," we might be able to change the outcome.

Our country seems mostly focused on WHERE: Where do we bomb to try and make the problem go away.

You have to go back to Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood, the assassination of Sadat, the 1993 bombing of the WTC to get to the roots of "Why?" 9-11 wasn't the real beginning.

[MPeter]

I think this is great advise. Talk about it now when our heads are cooler and calmer; we can reason and behave rationally. After the attack, we'll all be madas hell. Thank You this is great advise and I completely agree with it.