Protecting Us to Death

[Qanisqineq]

http://www.antiwar.com/orig/whitehurst.php?articleid=3888

Protecting Us to Death
A cautionary tale for security-conscious voters
by Dr. Teresa Whitehurst

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It's tempting to think that, if you just hit every enemy and his neighbors hard enough, pretty soon you'll be safe and free and happy. But the way this kind of "defense" really works is more like that arcade game where every time you try to hammer the wooden "critters" with a wooden mallet, more of them pop up. The harder you hit them, the faster others pop up, and the more frustrated you get. Finally, the buzzer sounds and you walk away wishing you hadn't spent all those quarters on a game that was rigged from the start.

But what happens when your president defends you by attacking every Tom, Dick, and Harry who happens to be in the vicinity of every enemy or suspected enemy is even worse. Like a boomerang, the violence your leader wields to restore your (and his) pride, right past wrongs, or defend against insults and threats begins – suddenly or gradually – veering back toward you. Pretty soon you're running for cover from new violence by new enemies, brought about by the very national "defense" that's supposed to be protecting you.

When Mr. Bush said that God told him to strike al-Qaeda, was it really God telling him to bomb the people – terrorists, the Taliban, "insurgents," and civilian girls and boys, men and women alike – of Afghanistan and Iraq, or was it his burning desire to achieve historic status as the God-appointed war president? Take a look at the evidence: We the people of America are left holding the bag, with Osama bin Laden still sending videotaped messages four years later, pulling our strings and threatening our lives.

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This Tuesday, we can vote for four more years of knee-jerk reactions and foolish arrogance, or we can vote to get off this violence-retaliation-violence merry-go-round. We can reevaluate our core values, choosing wisdom over impulsivity and substance over appearance. We can choose diplomacy, humility, and cooperation with others, pledging to put a stop to the Bush administration's boomerang policy of violent "self-defense" that has infected Christianity, made us more vulnerable than ever, and led us to forget who we really are.

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