Muse – What is the Measure of Safety? (2/2)

Israel and Palestine? They have the road map and.. umm.. well, that’s about it.

Israel disdains the road map and ignores Bush openly without much threat to the significant aid they pull down. They stage strikes and raids in Palestinian territory, often striking for individuals in the middle of populated areas with little restraint in what manner of weaponry. Missile and bomb justice. They bulldoze the homes of Palestinians who may or may not be harboring terrorists or weapon caches, regardless of their guilt or innocence. They build their big wall despite the entire world, including the Bush administration, expressing significant reservations on the topic and Sharon plans to take his own unilateral action in cutting and running with the territory his fence has annexed, cutting through Palestinian communities, cutting them off from land they’ve farmed for decades and sources of water without care for the lives they will destroy, hence doing their own part in generating the next generation of human bombs that will strike out in spite against them, nothing left in their lives save the burning need for revenge against the cruel monsters of Israel.

And there is no US leadership. The Palestinian PM is given little support, allowing Arafat to continue his efforts to stymie the efforts at peace, keeping personal control over Palestinian security forces which largely precludes any attempt to put the kibosh on terrorist orgs. Never mind that such action is likely to result in civil war. Why? Hamas. Hamas builds schools. They build hospitals. They provide for many people in Palestine. You didn’t know that? Hamas has two wings. The military and the political wing. The military does the killing. The political does PR effectively amongst Palestinians, making them the best friends of many innocent Palestinians who only know that their simple needs are provided for this group who also fights Israel. Israel who does nothing for them, often killing of friends and relatives in their aggressive, forceful incursions into Palestinian territory. Without some foil to this, there remains a segment of the population that, if it came down to it, would likely raise arms in defense of Hamas if the organization were under siege. Yet efforts to provide for these people and given them an alternative have been sadly absent.

Lybia? Yup, looks like Momar Kadafi is keen to get on the good side of the US. He’s going to dismantle his WMD programs and be a good boy, should indications play out.

Yet when has Lybia been a concern? I’ve not heard of the country posing a threat to anything in a long time. And I don’t think that they had significant programs to begin with.

North Korea? Contained and likely to talk.. eventually.

Yet there remains uncertainty as to their weapons programs. What is not in doubt is that they could do deadly damage to south Korea if ever truly backed into a corner. Regardless of if they have nukes that can reach the west coast or not. Thus diplomacy is required. Yet dealing with ‘lil Kim is an exercise in exasperation, the nutty little dictator being quite the master of general confusion.

No attacks since 9/11? While we’ve had moments of high alert, we’ve had no new attacks on US soil. That’s great.

However I expected few if any attacks for the meantime. It takes a long time to plan an attack as coordinated, creative and deadly as what they did on 9/11. Sure, the attacks on their cells are likely to slow them down too. Besides, why would they need to attack us now? All they need to do is feint at us and the alert goes up, causing the US to start hemorrhaging money as long as our heightened state of alert lasts. People might freak, some will cancel their plans. Meanwhile they can strike at other less secure places for the next few years, raising fear across the ocean until the Americans become complacent and get tired of having the government cry wolf at every fluctuation in the ‘talk’. Then.. then it would be a grand time to give the US another kick in the nutsack. They’ll never destroy the US, but they can keep us weak, paranoid and frightened without a great deal of effort or resources expended.

So there you have it. Much of the disorder in the world as of late and two ways of looking at things. When I look back, I have to wonder why people keep telling us we’re safer. Some things have been done, sure. Yet they aren’t enough to consider a significant turn in the tide of violence and disorder that ripple form the Middle East. At best, we’ve the potential to be safer. Should the Bush Administration’s attempts to turn Iraq manage to succeed and should they put more effort in truly resolving the situation between Palestine and Israel by looking to the ones on both sides that want peace, sidelining Arafat and Sharon for saner heads to take the reigns of power, some agreement could be formed between them.

Then.. it would be possible that there could be a ripple of peace through the Middle East. But we’re betting a lot on that. If we fail, things will get worse. Much worse considering the terrorists will likely be bolstered by the failure and see a fresh wave of recruitment. We put a great deal on the line in this bold action. The outcome is far from certain and the stakes are high. But so could be the gain.

Yet I don’t feel safer looking at this grand uncertainty at the future of the world.

Do you feel safer? Why? What makes you feel safe? What is the standard by which we judge this safety? Disagree? Sock it to me.